GODS  MISSIONARY  PLAN 
FOR  THE  WORLD 


1  .W.  BASHFORD 


*     OCT  1  -i  1907 


r  BV  2060  .B38  1907 
Bashford,  James  Whi 

..-^ 

tfo 

rd. 

18A9-1919. 

^  God^s  missionary  pi 

an 

for 

the  world 

• 


God's  Missionary  Plan 
for  the  World 


BISHOP  J.  W.  BASHFORD 


NiwVo«k:      EATON  &   MAINS 
ClNClNNATli      JENNINGS  &  GRAHAM 


Copyright,  1907,  by 
Eaton  &  Mains 


TO  MY  WIFE 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

Preface vii 

I  The  Divine  Purpose i 

II  The  Divine  Order  of  Procedure 21 

III  The  Old  Testament  and  Missions 43 

IV  The  New  Testament  and  Missions 58 

V  The  Divine  Method  of  Securing  Power 71 

VI  The  Divine  Method  of  Securing  Workers 90 

VII  The  Divine  Method  of  Securing  Means 112 

VIII  The  Divine  Method  of  Securing  Results 133 

IX  The  Divine  Providence  and  Missions 155 


PREFACE 

In  Chungking,  China,  in  January,  1905,  I 
found  a  very  suggestive  volume  by  Rev.  R.  F. 
Horton,  entitled  The  Bible  a  Missionary  Book. 
It  was  the  only  volume  in  West  China  and  had 
just  arrived.  Hence  I  could  not  accept  the  loan 
of  it  so  kindly  offered,  and  I  had  only  a  little 
time  to  read  it  while  busy  with  other  cares.  But 
the  argument  and  the  title  of  the  book  took  pos- 
session of  me ;  and  during  the  succeeding  months 
of  travel  and  meditation,  I  read  the  Bible  through 
from  the  missionary  view-point ;  and  the  present 
volume  took  shape. 

If  the  volume  does  not  speak  for  itself  no 
further  words  can  now  avail.  I  need  only  add 
that  I  am  indebted  to  Dr.  H.  K.  Carroll,  Secre- 
tary of  the  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  for  valuable  sug- 
gestions and  also  for  the  title  of  the  volume, 
which  is  a  more  ambitious  one  than  I  had  se- 
lected ;  to  Rev.  Stephen  V.  R.  Ford  for  valuable 
statistics;  and  to  Dr.  F.  D.  Gamewell,  Mr. 
Charles  H.  Fahs,  Mr.  Morris  W.  Ehnes,  and 
Mr.  G.  F.  Sutherland  for  exceedingly  valuable 
information ;  and  to  Rev.  C.  H.  Morgan,  Ph.  D., 
for  preparing  the  running  titles  and  the  index. 

It  seems  absurd  indeed  to  attempt  an  inter- 


Preface 

pretation  of  the  Bible  and  an  expression  of  the 
divine  plan  for  the  race  in  a  small  volume  pre- 
pared under  tremendous  pressure  of  other  duties, 
and  even  more  absurd  to  hint  at  a  philosophy  of 
history  in  a  brief  closing  chapter.  But  it  is  large 
movements  which  are  simple  and  easily  foreseen ; 
while  details  introduce  complexity  and  confusion. 
It  is  impossible  to  forecast  the  death  of  any  single 
individual,  but  quite  easy  to  calculate  the  life  of 
a  generation.  It  is  impossible  to  foretell  where 
gravity  and  the  wind  will  leave  any  single  leaf 
of  the  forest  ten  minutes  after  it  loses  its  hold 
upon  the  branch,  but  quite  easy  to  foretell  the 
exact  spot  in  the  universe  which  one  globe  will 
occupy  a  thousand  years  from  today. 

I  have  dared  to  sow,  the  harvest  will  test  the 
seed,  and  also  the  soil.  Let  us  pray  God  that 
the  seed  prove  sound,  the  soil  good,  and  the 
harvest  a  hundredfold. 


vlil 


CHAPTER  I 
The  Divine  Purpose 

"Blessed  be  the  God  and  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  who  hath  blessed  us  with  every  spiritual  blessing 
in  the  heavenly  places  in  Christ :  even  as  he  chose  us  in 
him  before  the  foundation  of  the  world,  that  we  should 
be  holy  and  without  blemish  before  him  in  love:  .  .  . 
making  known  unto  us  the  mystery  of  his  will,  according 
to  his  good  pleasure  which  he  purposed  in  him  unto  a 
dispensation  of  the  fullness  of  the  times,  to  sum  up  all 
things  in  Christ,  the  things  in  the  heavens,  and  the 
things  upon  the  earth."    Eph.  i.  3-1 1. 

The  divine  purpose  contemplates  the  evangel-' 
ization  of  all  peoples  in  pagan  lands  and  the 
complete  Christianization  of  the  races.  Draw 
the  line  clearly  for  a  few  moments  between 
evangelization  and  Christianization.  As  soon  as 
every  man,  woman,  and  child  on  earth  hears  the 
Gospel,  learns  the  good  news,  "For  God  so  loved 
the  world,  that  he  gave  his  only  begotten  Son, 
that  whosoever  believeth  on  him  should  not 
perish,  but  have  eternal  life,"  the  human  race 
has  been  evangelized.  When  every  human  being 
accepts  Christ  as  Saviour  and  Lord,  and  when 
the  inner  spirit  and  the  outward  conduct  of  each 
are  transformed  by  Christ,  then  the  Christian- 
I 


Our  Two 
Tasks 


2  God's  Missionary  Plan 

ization  of  the  race  will  be  accomplished.     We 
confine  our  attention  first  to  the  lighter  task  of 
the  evangelization  of  the  race. 
China  a  We  should  like  to  consider  the  problems  which 

peci  c  ase  ^^j^f^^^^  ^g  ^^  e2ich  uncvangelized  land.  In 
order  to  speak  from  personal  knowledge  and 
with  greater  definiteness  we  shall  draw  our 
illustrations  largely  from  China.  Other  nations 
probably  would  afford  equally  strong  illustra- 
tions, were  we  familiar  with  them.  Besides, 
the  same  fundamental  difficulties  meet  us  in  all 
parts  of  the  field,  and  in  studying  the  problem 
in  one  field  we  are  studying  it  in  its  essential 
features  in  all  the  unevangelized  portions  of  the 
earth. 
Population  of  The  bcst  estimates  put  the  unevangelized  peo- 
the  Empire  ^^^^  ^£  ^j^^  world  at  between  eight  and  nine  hun- 
dred millions.  For  the  sake  of  clearness  let  us 
compare  the  problem  which  confronts  us  in  the 
evangelization  of  one  single  empire  with  the 
problem  which  confronted  the  church  in  the 
evangelization  of  Europe  and  the  United  States. 
The  best  estimates  make  the  population  of  the 
Chinese  empire  four  hundred  and  twenty-nine 
millions,  and  the  population  of  Europe  and  Amer- 
ica combined  four  hundred  and  sixty-two  mil- 
lions. This  comparison  of  the  population  of 
China  with  that  of  Europe  and  America  reveals 
in  some  measure  the  size  of  the  task  we  have 


The  Divine  Purpose 


undertaken  in  that  empire  alone.  Contemplate 
briefly  the  efforts  which  have  been  required  to 
secure  the  evangelization  and  the  partial  Chris- 
tianization  of  Europe  and  America. 

I.  Think  of  the  number  of  men  and  women 
who  have  devoted  their  lives  to  the  spread  of  the 
Gospel  in  Europe  and  the  United  States.  There 
are  154,320  ministers  of  the  Gospel  in  the  United 
States  today  for  a  population  of  85,568,159.  In 
a  word,  there  is  one  minister  of  the  Gospel  in 
the  United  States  for  every  554  of  the  popula- 
tion. There  are  in  China  in  all  the  churches,  sub- 
stantially two  thousand  persons,  including  some 
women,  engaged  in  the  work  of  evangelization. 
This  does  not  include  the  missionary  physicians, 
or  teachers,  but  it  does  include  ordained  Chinese 
preachers.  This  gives  us  one  minister  of  the 
Gospel  in  China,  including  all  ordained  Chinese, 
for  each  219,000  of  the  population.  This  perhaps 
is  the  fairest  basis  of  comparison.  In  a  word,  we 
have  three  hundred  and  seventy-seven  times  as 
many  ministers  of  the  Gospel  in  the  United  States 
in  proportion  to  the  population  as  we  have  in  the 
Chinese  empire. 

Including  all  active  Christian  workers  in 
China,  men  and  women,  native  and  foreign,  we 
have  in  the  empire  one  minister,  physician, 
teacher,  or  Bible  woman  for  each  44,693  of 
the  population;  while  in  the  United  States  we 


Inadequate 

Gospel 

Agencies 


United  States 
in  Comparison 


Missionaries 


4  God's  Missionary  Plan 

have  a  minister,  teacher,  or  physician  for  each 
no  of  the  population.  In  a  word,  we  have  four 
hundred  and  six  times  as  many  ministers,  teach- 
ers, and  physicians  laboring  for  the  transforma- 
tion of  the  United  States  as  we  have  in  China, 
including  native  workers. 
Proportion  of  Omitting  the  native  workers  and  not  count- 
ing the  wives  of  the  ministers,  teachers,  and 
physicians,  who  are  not  counted  in  the  United 
States,  but  including  among  the  missionaries  not 
only  the  ministers  proper,  but  all  men  and  women 
who  have  gone  to  China  as  missionary  teachers 
and  physicians,  we  have  in  the  Chinese  empire 
one  missionary  for  every  156,428  persons  as  com- 
pared with  one  preacher,  teacher,  or  physician 
for  every  no  of  the  population  in  the  United 
States,  or  fourteen  hundred  times  as  many  in 
proportion  to  the  population  as  in  China.  But 
putting  the  comparison  in  any  one  of  the  three 
forms  we  have  in  the  United  States  from  three 
hundred  and  seventy-seven  to  fourteen  hundred 
times  as  many  people  laboring  for  Christ  in  pro- 
portion to  the  population  as  we  have  in  the 
Chinese  empire.  The  longer  one  dwells  upon 
these  facts,  the  more  fully  will  he  realize  how 
pitiful  are  the  resources,  how  few  the  agents 
placed  at  God's  disposal  for  the  evangelization  of 
the  heathen  world  as  compared  with  the  re- 
sources and  agents  employed  in  Christian  lands. 


The  Divine  Purpose  5 

With  so  few  workers  how  and  when  can  the 
church  at  home  reasonably  expect  the  evangeHza- 
tion  of  the  human  race? 

2.  In  the  element  of  time,  it  has  taken  nineteen  Periods  of 
hundred  years  for  the  Gospel  to  spread  through  tion"^*  ^* 
Christendom.   Counting  twenty  years  as  the  period 

of  service  of  Christian  workers,  the  evangeliza- 
tion of  Europe  and  the  United  States  has  re- 
quired ninety-five  generations  of  workers.  Think 
of  the  number  of  men  and  women  whose  lifelong 
labors  have  been  required  during  the  last  ninety- 
five  generations  to  lead  Europe  and  the  United 
States  with  their  462,000,000  people  to  that  state 
of  Christian  life  which  thus  far  they  have  at- 
tained. If  we  are  to  demand  any  similar  period 
of  time  and  any  similar  number  of  workers  for 
the  evangelization  and  the  partial  Christianization 
of  the  Chinese  empire  with  almost  equal  popula- 
tion, a  very  large  and  heavy  problem  confronts 
the  Christian  church.  When  we  enlarge  our 
undertaking  from  the  evangelization  of  the  429,- 
000,000  Chinese  to  the  enlightenment  of  the 
900,000,000  of  India,  Africa,  China,  and  the 
islands  of  the  sea,  the  task  becomes  an  appalling 
one. 

3.  Think  of  the  money  which  is  required  even   Comparative 
to  maintain  the  churches  and  to  make  the  slight 
advances  which  we  are  able  to  make  at  home. 

It    has    been    estimated    that    the    members    of 


6  God's  Missionary  Plan 

the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  alone  give 
for  all  purposes  some  $40,000,000  a  year — an 
average  expenditure  of  over  twelve  dollars  per 
member.  If  the  same  proportion  is  maintained 
by  the  other  churches,  the  annual  expenditure 
for  all  church  and  benevolent  purposes  is  $4.25 
for  each  man,  woman,  and  child  in  the  United 
States.  Using  the  same  ratio  for  Europe,  the 
total  expenditure  made  by  governments  and  by 
individuals  for  the  maintenance  of  religious  and 
charitable  institutions  of  Christendom  would  be 
$1,963,500,000  per  year.  It  is  safe  to  count  the 
total  expenditure  for  Christianity  including 
churches,  schools,  colleges,  hospitals,  charity, 
etc.,  at  $1,500,000,000  a  year.  Upon  the  other 
Contributions  ^and,    whcn    we    return    to    the    evano^elization 

for  China  .  .  ^ 

of  China,  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 
through  the  Parent  Board,  the  Woman's  Board, 
and  private  donors  gives  $250,000  a  year  for 
that  purpose.  True,  this  church  is  not  alone  re- 
sponsible for  the  evangelization  of  China.  But 
neither  is  this  church  alone  responsible  for  the 
Christianization  of  the  United  States.  From  the 
statistics  available  we  estimate  the  contributions 
of  all  the  Protestant  churches  and  Roman  Catho- 
lic churches,  combined,  at  approximately  $2,000,- 
000  per  year  for  China.  In  a  word,  the  ex- 
penditure for  the  United  States  and  Europe  is 
seven  hundred  and  fifty  times  as  much  as  the 


The  Divine  Purpose  7 

expenditure  for  the  evangehzation  of  China  with 
almost  as  large  a  population. 

Summing  up  the  three  factors  which  we  have  summing  up 
thus  far  considered,  we  find  that  to  evangelize 
the  462,000,000  of  Europe  and  the  United  States 
and  to  maintain  our  Christian  institutions  in  their 
present  degree  of  efficiency,  there  were  required 
1900  years  of  time,  ninety-five  generations  of 
evangelists,  with  the  lives  of  millions  of  ministers, 
teachers,  and  lay  workers,  and  at  present  an 
expenditure  of  one  and  a  half  billion  dollars  a 
year.  Human  nature  remains  much  the  same  the 
world  over.  The  Chinese  are  much  the  same  as 
Europeans  or  the  Americans,  only  they  are  a  little 
firmer  in  devotion  to  their  existing  civilization 
and  to  their  existing  customs  than  are  Americans. 
Enlarging  our  task  so  as  to  include  all  the  un- 
evangelized  people  on  earth — more  than  double 
the  number  in  China — surely  the  problem  which 
confronts  us  is  a  discouraging  one. 

Moreover,  Europe  at  the  time  of  her  evan-   Chinese 

...  ,..,-.  ,  Solidarity 

gelization  was  divided  into  more  than  two  score 
nations,  and  the  very  rivalries  of  these  countries 
led  part  of  them  to  accept  Christianity  out  of 
strife  and  to  pour  out  their  lives  and  money  for 
its  spread.  At  the  time  of  the  Reformation,  for 
instance,  certain  nations  poured  out  their  money 
and  blood  like  water  for  the  propagation  of  the 
Protestant  faith,  and  others  made  equal  sacrifices 


8  God's  Missionary  Plan 

for  the  propagation  of  the  Roman  CathoUc  faith, 
each  of  them  making  enormous  sacrifices  for  the 
propagation  of  a  branch  of  the  church.  So, 
"even  through  strife,"  as  Paul  wrote,  the  king- 
dom spread.  But  the  Chinese  are  a  compact 
people.  They  have  one  written  language.  They 
are  dominated  to  a  large  extent  by  a  single  type 
of  civilization.  They  constitute  one  great  empire. 
Here,  therefore,  we  attacked,  not  a  divided  people 
which  could  be  conquered  piecemeal  and  one  part 
of  which  could  be  turned  against  the  other  part, 
as  in  Europe;  we  attacked  a  solid  mass,  pagan 
throughout.  Looking  at  the  problem  from  this 
point  of  view,  the  task  was  indeed  an  enormous 
one. 
Chinese  In  addition  is  the  difficulty  of  mastering  the 

Chinese  language.  When  one  learns  the  twenty- 
six  characters  which  constitute  the  English  al- 
phabet, so  that  he  can  recognize  them  at  a 
glance,  pronounce  them  at  will,  and  write  them 
readily,  he  can  with  the  use  of  a  dictionary  read 
and  write  our  language  intelligently.  A  student 
twenty  years  old  ought  to  master  our  alphabet 
in  a  day  and  be  able  to  read  and  write  in  a  few 
weeks.  To  learn  Chinese,  one  must  master  a 
new  character  for  every  word  which  he  acquires. 
Kang-hi's  lexicon  contains  44,449  Chinese  char- 
acters. Fortunately  less  than  a  third  of  this 
number  of  characters  appear  in  the  current  liter- 


Language  a 

Barrier 


The  Divine  Purpose  9 

ature  of  the  empire.  Indeed  I  suppose  one  might 
claim  to  be  a  fair  Chinese  scholar  who  had  mas- 
tered five  thousand  characters,  although  a  native 
telegraph  operator  is  required  to  master  six  thou- 
sand characters.  These  five  thousand  characters 
are  exceedingly  complex  and  exceedingly  diffi- 
cult to  differentiate.  Our  "m"  resembles  our 
"n";  "u"  resembles  "w";  "o"  resembles  "q,"  etc. 
Think  of  the  infinitely  minute  variations  which 
must  be  made  in  order  to  differentiate  not  simply 
twenty-six  characters,  but  five  thousand  charac- 
ters from  each  other.  It  requires  a  constant  and 
almost  an  absorbing  exercise  of  the  memory  to 
keep  these  characters  differentiated  in  one's  mind 
after  they  once  have  been  mastered.  Here,  then, 
is  an  almost  insuperable  barrier  to  the  conquest 
of  Chinese  civilization  and  to  the  winning  of  four 
hundred  and  twenty-nine  millions.  While  no  Difficulties  of 
single  language  in  India  perhaps  presents  so  great 
a  barrier,  our  missionaries  there  are  now  preach- 
ing in  thirty-seven  different  languages  or  dia- 
lects, and  must  master  a  hundred  more  in  order 
to  reach  all  her  300,000,000  people.  In  Africa 
we  are  obliged  to  create  a  written  language  out 
of  an  infinite  variety  of  dialects  for  her  150,000,- 
000  people.  Similar  barriers  to  these  found  in 
China,  India,  and  Africa  confront  us  in  every 
mission  field  on  earth. 

Moreover,  in  attempting  to  overcome  the  most 


10  God's  Missionary  Plan 

Roman  enduring  pagan  civilization  ever  produced  we 
Abu^sea^  suffcr  in  China,  as  in  South  America  and  Mexico, 
from  the  disadvantage  of  having  Christianity 
misrepresented  by  the  Jesuits.  We  must  do  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church  the  justice  to  say  that 
John  of  Montecorvino  translated  the  New  Testa- 
ment and  the  Psalms  into  Chinese  and  that 
thousands  upon  thousands  of  Chinese  have 
caught  through  Roman  Catholic  teaching  enough 
of  Christ  to  enable  them  to  die  for  him  in  times 
of  persecution.  Upon  the  other  hand,  the 
Jesuits,  as  indeed  all  orders  of  the  Roman  Catho- 
lic Church,  believe  in  the  union  of  church  and 
state,  and  from  the  first  have  mixed  in  the 
political  affairs  of  eastern  nations.  So  notorious 
was  Jesuit  interference  with  the  political  affairs 
of  Japan  that  the  Japanese,  like  many  European 
Jesuit  Efforts  natious,  wcre  compelled  to  banish  them  from  the 
and  China  empire.  In  1898  the  Jesuits  induced  the  French 
government  to  secure  from  China  by  pressure 
a  treaty  granting  to  all  Roman  Catholic  mission- 
aries civil  as  well  as  ecclesiastical  authority  over 
their  converts  and  conceding  to  foreign  Catholic 
priests  in  the  empire  the  rank  of  mandarins,  or 
officials,  and  to  the  bishops  the  rank  of  viceroys. 
The  Chinese  government,  in  order  to  prevent 
too  gross  an  abuse  of  civil  power  by  the  Catholic 
priests  and  also  in  order  to  treat  all  nations  alike, 
offered  the  same  privileges  to  Protestant  mission- 


The  Divine  Purpose  II 

aries.  Through  the  good  sense  of  these  mission- 
aries and  the  wisdom  of  their  governments,  this 
offer  was  declined  and  the  Chinese  were  in- 
formed that  in  the  leading  nations  of  the  West 
church  and  state  are  entirely  separated.  The 
granting  of  civil  power  to  the  French  priests 
in  China  has  increased  the  abuses  which  had 
already  sprung  up,  and  the  French  Catholic 
priests  are  continually  using  this  civil  power  for 
the  acquisition  of  property,  and  are  insisting  upon 
the  civil  as  well  as  the  ecclesiastical  control  of 
their  converts.  But  the  great  mass  of  the  Chinese 
no  more  distinguish  between  Roman  Catholic 
and  Protestant  Christians  than  people  in  America 
distinguish  between  a  Cantonese  and  a  Peking 
Chinese.  Hence  the  Protestants  are  suffering 
and  must  suffer  for  years  to  come  through  the 
travesty  of  Christianity  presented  by  the  Roman 
Catholic  officials. 

A  further  difficulty,  in  this  case  peculiar  to '  English 
China,  arises  from  the  fact  that  even  Protestant-   °p^""  ^" 
ism  largely  secured  her  entrance  to  the  "empire 
through  the  Opium  War.     That  war  and  the 
continued    introduction    of    opium    into    China 
through  force  by  the  English  government  are  a 
blot  upon  the  English  flag.  But  it  was  the  Opium  ' 
War  which  opened  to  the  missionaries  the  five 
leading  ports  of  the  empire,  and  gave  us  our 
foothold  for  the  propagation  of  Christianity, 


12  God's  Missionary  Plan 

American       Again,  ouf  work  in  China   suffers  humilia- 
Exciusion   ^j^j^  because  of  our  American  Exclusion  Act. 

Act 

This  act  is  a  plain  violation  of  a  solemn  treaty 
made  by  us  with  the  Chinese.  The  act  is  so 
humiliating  in  its  terms  that  we  dare  not  im- 
pose it  upon  Japan  or  any  nation  possessing 
military  strength  and  spirit.  I  do  not  believe  it 
wise  or  fair  to  admit  the  Chinese  coolies  to  free 
and  unrestricted  competition  with  American 
laborers  while  the  standard  of  living  for  the 
Chinese  remains  so  much  below  that  of  the 
Americans.  At  any  rate,  if  there  is  any  wisdom 
in  protecting  manufacturers  in  America  from 
foreign  competition  by  tariffs,  the  same  principle 
demands  the  protection  of  the  workingmen.  For- 
tunately the  Chinese  government  on  economic 
grounds  and  the  Chinese  people  on  religious 
grounds  are  opposed  to  emigration.  China  is 
largely  agreed  with  the  United  States  on  the  end 
to  be  reached.  But  the  terms  of  the  present  law 
which  exclude  the  Chinese  by  name  are  humiliat- 
ing to  Chinese  self-respect,  as  similar  terms 
would  be  humiliating  to  the  pride  of  any  other 
nation.  If  we  would  make  the  law  mutual,  for- 
bidding any  Chinese  to  come  to  America  and 
engage  in  manual  labor  and  any  American  to  go 
to  China  and  engage  in  manual  labor,  I  think  it 
would  be  acceptable  to  the  Chinese.  Surely  with 
substantial  agreement  by  both  nations  as  to  the 


The  Divine  Purpose  13 

end  to  be  reached,  American  lawyers  can  frame  a 
bill  which  shall  not  be  so  offensive  in  its  terms. 
Besides,  the  exclusion  law  was  for  years  enforced 
in  a  harsh  and  cruel  manner.  Fortunately,  Presi- 
dent Roosevelt  has  stopped  this  harsh  enforce- 
ment of  an  offensive  law.  But  the  past  harsh 
enforcement  and  the  present  terms  of  the  law 
arouse  the  Chinese  against  Americans,  and  make 
Christian  work  in  China  more  difficult  and  dan- 
gerous upon  the  part  of  all  missionaries.  More- 
over, although  the  Chinese  government  is  making 
an  heroic  effort  to  abolish  opium,  we  must  now 
deal  with  a  people  probably  a  quarter  of  whom 
are  demoralized  by  the  drug. 

Once  more,  Protestant  Christianity  in  China  Taiping 
has  suffered  for  more  than  a  generation  to  some   Rebellion 
extent  from  the  odium  of  the  Taiping  Rebellion.    Foreigners 
The  rebellion  was  started  by  a  young  Chinese, 
who  had  had  some  slight  contact  with  Chris- 
tianity through  one  of  our  Protestant  schools. 
He  claimed  that  during  an  illness  he  received  a 
vision  of  Jesus  Christ.    He  later  went  to  one  of 
our   Protestant   missionaries   and   spent   a   few 
weeks  with  him,  professing  to  seek  to  fit  himself 
for  the  ministry  of  the  Gospel,  but  fortunately 
was   refused   baptism   because   he   demanded   a 
guarantee  of  monthly  wages  following  his  bap- 
tism.   This  young  man.  Hung  Sui-tseuen,  while 
he  was  not  received  into  any  Christian  Church, 


14  God's  Missionary  Plan 

nevertheless  conducted  his  agitation  under  the 
guise  of  a  Christian,  giving  instruction  in  the 
New  Testament  and  proposing  to  establish  the 
Heavenly  Kingdom  of  Great  Peace  upon  earth, 
so  that  the  very  name  of  the  rebellion,  the  Tai- 
ping  Rebellion,  means  the  Great  Peace  Rebel- 
lion. Later  he  claimed  to  be  a  younger  brother 
of  Jesus  Christ.  Thus  the  name  of  Christ  was 
used  to  sanction  more  horrible  lust  and  plunder 
and  butcheries  in  China  than  have  disgraced  the 
church  in  Europe.  The  rebellion  spread  through- 
out China  and  the  loss  of  life  by  sword,  famine, 
and  pestilence  during  the  thirteen  years  is 
estimated  by  the  careful  author  of  The  Middle 
Kingdom  at  twenty  million  people.  Finally, 
V  Christianity  has  suffered  in  China  and  in  every 
other  unevangelized  land  more  than  can  ever  be 
expressed,  by  the  greed  of  some  foreign  traders, 
by  the  drunkenness  of  some  foreign  residents,  by 
the  injustice  of  some  foreign  governments  in 
seizing  territory,  and  by  the  lust  of  some  visitors 
from  Western  nations  finding  shameful  mani- 
festation in  the  absence  of  home  restraints  and  in 
the  presence  of  heathen  peoples. 
Embarrass-  j^  India  whilc  the  embarrassments  have 
India  not    been  the    same,    perhaps    they    have    been 

equally  great.  No  one  likes  to  be  governed  by 
others  even  though  the  despotism  be  benevolent. 
There  is  not  the  slightest   doubt  that  English 


The  Divine  Purpose  15 

authority  in  India  has  tended  to  the  decline  of 
wars,  famines,  pestilences,  and  disorders  among 
300,000,000  people,  and  has  set  the  Indian  in 
the  path  of  modern  civilization.  Upon  the  other 
hand,  we  believe  that  the  imposition  of  alien 
authority  upon  the  people  of  India  is  now  caus- 
ing much  chafing  upon  the  part  of  the  young 
leaders;  and,  while  aiding  on  the  one  side,  is 
upon  the  other  side  a  serious  embarrassment  to 
missions. 

In  Africa  missionary  effort  is  still  more  handi-   African 
capped  by  the  horrible  cruelty  which  the  United      *"  *'^*^" 
States  inflicted  upon  that  continent  in  the  Ameri- 
can slave  trade,  in  the  yet  unforgotten  cruelties 
of  the  earlier  English  slave  trade,  in  the  present 
barbarities  of  the  rum  traffic,  and  the  atrocities 
of  the  Congo  government.     In  a  word,  we  are  v 
seriously  handicapped  in  our  efforts  for  the  evan- 
gelization of  the  world  by  the  imperfect  Chris- 
tianity of  the  governments  and  the  civilizations 
which  Christians  have  thus  far  developed. 

When  we  recall  the  countless  numbers  of  the  Roiiof 
Chinese,  the  solidarity  of  the  heathen  civiliza-  and  Evils 
tion  which  prevails  among  them,  the  difficulties 
of  their  language,  the  misrepresentation  of  Chris- 
tianity by  part  of  the  missionaries  in  the  exer- 
cise of  civil  authority,  the  disgrace  of  Protestant 
England  in  the  Opium  War,  the  embarrassment 
caused  by  the  terms  and   enforcement  of  the 


1 6  God's  Missionary  Plan 

American  Exclusion  Act,  the  travesty  of  Chris- 
tian civiHzation  by  the  drunkenness  and  lust  of 
some  traders  and  travelers  in  the  Orient, 
the  greed  and  wickedness  of  foreign  nations  in 
seizing  Chinese  territory  and  exploiting  China 
for  commercial  gain,  the  embarrassment  of  for- 
eign domination  in  India,  the  devilish  greed  of 
slavery  and  rum  in  Africa,  the  abuse  of  civil  and 
religious  authority  in  South  America,  we  must 
surely  recognize  that  the  battle  of  the  ages  is 
on  for  the  redemption  of  these  vast  empires. 
Satan  is  making  his  last  stand  in  order  to  save 
these  vast  populations  from  contact  with  the 
living  Christ. 
The  Cry  of  Possibly  in  what  we  have  written  above  we 
may  seem  to  be  contributing  to  the  sentiment 
which  many  of  the  weaker  members  of  our 
church  already  hold:  possibly  friends  of  mis- 
sions will  regret  that  we  are  presenting  so  dark 
a  picture  of  the  task  which  confronts  the  church. 
Indeed,  the  great  majority  of  those  who  are  not 
interested  in  missions  say  that  the  task  is  simply 
appalling,  that  we  have  more  than  we  can  do 
to  take  care  of  heathenism  at  home,  that  it  is 
absolutely  impossible  for  us  to  conquer  China 
for  Christ,  and  especially  not  only  to  conquer 
China,  but  India,  and  Africa,  and  the  islands  of 
the  sea;  that  it  is  worse  than  useless  for  us  to 
summon  our  people  to  such  a  quixotic  and  impos- 


Pessimism 


The  Divine  Purpose  17 

sible  task,  and  that  our  wisest  course  is  to  still 
the  fanatics  and  leave  heathen  nations  with  the 
religions  they  have  followed  for  centuries  and 
devote  our  energies  to  the  salvation  of  America. 
We  can  only  say  in  response  to  this  criticism 
that  we  have  attempted  to  speak  the  truth  and 
the  whole  truth  without  concealing  or  abating 
one  jot  or  tittle  for  effect.  The  first  condition  of 
successful  war  is  sitting  down  and  counting  the 
cost.  We  have  only  two  words  to  add  in  correc- 
tion of  the  false  conclusions  which  the  discour- 
aged may  draw  from  the  facts  presented  above. 

First,  personally  we  do  not  summon  a  single  Missionary 
soul  to  this  task.  The  missionaries  in  foreign  from^G^d 
fields  are  not  the  persons  summoning  the  church 
at  home  to  contribute  men  and  money  for  the 
evangelization  of  the  world.  The  churches  at 
home  are  not  the  authorities  summoning  their 
members  to  make  the  tremendous  sacrifices  of 
men  and  money  required  to  conquer  the  world 
for  Christ.  In  a  word,  the  summons  is  not  ours. 
The  summons  was  issued  by  Almighty  God  '^ 
through  his  son  Jesus  Christ.  All  that  any  of  us 
who  are  interested  in  missions  pretend  to  do  is 
simply  to  repeat  the  command :  "Go  ye,  therefore, 
and  make  disciples  of  all  the  nations."  If,  there- 
fore, you  recoil  before  the  summons,  if  you  say 
it  is  a  quixotic  scheme  which  can  never  be  carried 
out  and  which  ought  never  to  have  been  under- 


1 8  God's  Missionary  Plan 

taken,  put  the  blame  where  it  belongs,  back  of 
the  missionaries  on  the  field,  back  of  the  Mission- 
ary Society  at  home,  back  of  the  churches  at 
home,  put  the  blame  back  on  Jesus  Christ;  nay 
put  it  back  upon  Almighty  God  who  sent  his  only 
begotten  Son,  Jesus  Christ,  to  begin  this  enter- 
prise ;  fight  out  your  battle  with  him.  It  was  not 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  nor  all  Chris- 
tendom combined,  which  issued  the  summons,  but 
Jesus  Christ  himself  who  said:  "Go  ye  into  all 
the  world  and  preach  the  gospel  to  the  whole 
creation."  The  problem,  therefore,  is  not  a 
human  problem.  While  sin  is  a  human  and  Sa- 
tanic act,  and  contradicts  rather  than  reveals  the 
divine  will,  nevertheless  the  possibility  of  sin 
was  contemplated  by  God  from  the  first  and 
Christ  was  a  Lamb  slain  from  the  foundation  of 
the  world.  It  is  an  immense  relief  to  feel  that 
while  the  problem  is  human  in  its  origin,  it  is 
divine  in  the  prevision  of  its  possibility,  and  in 
the  provision  to  meet  it. 
Infinite  Qur  sccoud  word  is  this :  Not  only  is  the  com- 

Avaiiabir  rnand  God's,  but  the  power  is  his  also.  The  task 
is  indeed  appalling;  but  upon  the  other  side  are 
the  resources  of  the  Infinite.  Put  China  with  her 
countless  millions,  equaling  the  numbers  in  the 
United  States  and  Europe  combined,  upon  one 
side  of  the  scale;  recall  again  that  it  has  taken 
ninety-five    generations    of    Christian    workers, 


The  Divine  Purpose  19 

1900  years  of  time,  millions  upon  millions  of 
lives  and  billions  upon  billions  of  dollars  to  bring 
Europe  and  America  up  to  the  point  of  civiliza- 
tion which  we  have  thus  far  reached ;  throw  into 
the  scale  in  which  China  rests  India,  Africa, 
Japan,  and  the  islands  of  the  sea ;  raise  the  num- 
ber of  the  unevangelized  from  four  hundred 
millions  up  to  nine  hundred  millions  and  face  the  Facing  the 
whole  world-problem  on  its  quantitative  side  at  ^obienT*"^^**' 
once;  remember,  further,  that  we  cannot  sepa- 
rate evangelization  from  Christianization,  that 
God  will  not  let  us  rest  even  when  we  have  car- 
ried the  message  of  salvation  to  the  last  human 
being  on  earth,  but  that  we  must  help  transform 
the  kingdoms  of  this  world  into  the  kingdom  of 
our  Lord  and  his  Christ,  and  thus  face  the  whole 
world-problem  on  its  qualitative  side  at  once. 
Now,  put  upon  the  other  side  of  the  scales,  not 
our  finite  resources  but  the  infinite  resources  of 
Almighty  God,  and  if  your  soul  has  faith  to  catch 
the  vision  of  the  unseen,  you  will  say:  "Those 
that  are  for  us  are  more  than  they  that  be  against 
us."  It  is  only  as  the  problem  drives  us  to  God ;  ^ 
it  is  only  as  the  church  hides  in  him,  seeks  from 
him  wisdom  and  grace  and  power  for  the  task, 
that  there  is  the  slightest  hope  of  success.  On 
the  other  hand,  if  we  seek  for  the  divine  re- 
sources placed  at  our  command,  if  we  avail  our- 
selves of  the  power  of  prayer,  of  the  indwelling 


56  God's  Missionary  Plan 

of  the  Spirit,  of  the  consecration  of  men  and 
women  and  money  which  the  Holy  Ghost  will 
inspire,  and  above  all,  if  we  remember  that  he 
goes  before  us  and  will  be  with  us  even  unto 
the  end  of  the  world,  and  that  our  task  is  not  to 
conquer  nine  hundred  millions  for  Christ  or  even 
Letting  Christ  a  single  soul,  but  simply  to  obey  Christ  and  let 
Make  the         Yi'im  make  the  conquest,  then  the  task  becomes 

Conquest  ,.       ,        .         ,  Tr 

an  exceedmgly  simple  one.  If  we  reject  any  part 
of  the  commission,  the  task  is  indeed  impossible ; 
but  if  we  believe  and  obey  every  clause  of  the 
commission,  the  task  is  not  only  possible,  but 
comparatively  easy,  because  the  commission  is 
preceded  by  the  assurance  that  all  authority  in 
heaven  and  earth  is  given  to  Jesus  and  followed 
by  the  promise  that  he  will  be  with  us  to  the  end. 
"All  authority  hath  been  given  unto  me  in  heaven 
and  on  earth.  Go  ye,  therefore,  and  make  disci- 
ples of  all  the  nations,  baptizing  them  into  the 
name  of  the  Father  and  of  the  Son  and  of  the 
Holy  Spirit,  teaching  them  to  observe  all  things 
whatsoever  I  commanded  you :  and  lo,  I  am  with 
you  always,  even  unto  the  end  of  the  world." 


CHAPTER  II 
The  Divine  Order  of  Procedure 

Any  fresh  study  of  the  Bible  with  reference  to  Personal  and 
missions  is  attended  with  inextricable  confusion  Blessing 
unless  we  first  recognize  the  narrower  aspects  of 
that  Book.  In  the  divine  promise  to  Abraham, 
we  read  these  strange  words :  "In  blessing  I  will 
bless  thee,  and  in  multiplying  I  will  multiply  thy 
seed  as  the  stars  of  the  heavens,  and  as  the  sand 
which  is  upon  the  seashore:  and  thy  seed  shall 
possess  the  gate  of  his  enemies ;  and  in  thy  seed 
shall  all  the  nations  of  the  earth  be  blessed." 
The  first  half  of  this  passage  contains  the  prom- 
ise of  a  personal  blessing  to  Abraham  and  his 
seed,  which  extends  even  to  the  driving  out  of 
the  enemies  of  Abraham's  descendants.  On  the 
other  side,  the  race  blessing  is  universal  in  its 
terms;  and  the  same  Hebrew  word  for  blessing 
is  used  to  indicate  that  the  nations  of  the  earth 
shall  receive  a  blessing,  not  only  equal  in  quan- 
tity, but  identical  in  quality  with  that  promised  to 
the  chosen  people — "And  in  thy  seed  shall  all 
the  nations  of  the  earth  be  blessed." 

The  greatness  of  Frederick  Robertson's  ser-   p°rXn"'^ 
mons  is  due  in  part  to  the  fact  that  he  always   Factors 
strove  to  recognize  the  partial  truth  which  in- 

21 


22  God's  Missionary  Plan 

heres  in  every  long-lived  error  and  to  put  that 
partial  truth  in  right  relations  to  its  complemen- 
tary truth.  Let  us  also  strive  to  do  full  justice 
to  that  deep  conviction  of  the  vast  majority  of 
Christians  that  only  after  one's  duties  to  him- 
self, to  his  home,  to  his  home  church,  and  his 
nation  have  been  fairly  met  is  he  at  liberty  to 
devote  time  or  means  to  the  evangelization  of  the 
world.  We  shall  find  that  if  the  conviction  of 
one's  duty  to  his  family  and  home  church  is  taken 
as  the  whole  truth,  it  furnishes  a  distorted  con- 
ception of  Christianity;  but  we  shall  find  that  if 
this  conviction  is  kept  in  right  relations  to  one's 
duty  to  the  world,  it  finds  ample  warrant  in  na- 
ture and  in  the  Bible.  No  man  can  work  for 
the  redemption  of  the  race  until  he  himself  is 
redeemed.  And  the  divine  method  of  salvation 
is  to  seek  pardon  for  one's  self,  then  to  begin 
with  one's  family,  to  proceed  to  one's  neighbors, 
to  strive  for  the  salvation  of  one's  nation,  and  to 
advance  to  the  salvation  of  the  world. 
Divine  Our  Calvinistic  friends  have  shown  a  disposi- 

ms?o^"^*°  tion  in  later  years  to  broaden  and  soften  their 
doctrine  of  divine  election.  On  the  other  side, 
I  am  sure  that  the  study  of  evolution  in  nature 
and  the  broader  study  of  the  Bible  have  led 
modern  Armlnians  to  recognize  a  divine  election 
running  through  nature  and  through  the  Bible. 
Let  us  notice  first,  therefore,  the  underlying  truth 


The  Divine  Order  of  Procedure  23 

of   Calvinism,    namely,   the   divine   plan   in   the 
unfolding  history  of  the  race. 

"I  will  bless  thee."  It  must  be  confessed  that  ^"'"ary 
the  first  reading  of  the  Bible  reveals  God's  at-  privilege 
tempt  to  call  and  to  save  the  chosen  peopl^  and 
his  passing  by  other  nations.  So  certainly  was 
this  the  apparent  teaching  of  the  Old  Testament 
that  the  most  devout  Jews,  those  best  versed 
in  the  Scriptures,  became  Pharisees  or  Separa- 
tists, using  that  word  in  its  good  sense.  They 
believed,  on  the  one  side,  that  the  Jews  should 
come  out  from  all  other  nations  and  become  a 
peculiar  people  of  God;  and,  on  the  other  side, 
they  believed  that  God  would  exalt  them  above 
all  the  other  nations  of  the  earth,  not  as  a  means 
to  an  end,  but  as  an  end  in  itself.  The  view 
was  based  on  what  seemed  to  the  Jews,  and  in- 
deed to  all  men  down  to  modern  times,  the 
natural  inequalities  of  men  and  of  races.  To  the- 
Jews  there  seemed  to  be  a  divine  recognition  of 
this  inequality  in  their  providential  deliverance 
from  the  Egyptians,  in  the  destruction  of  the 
Canaanites  for  their  sake,  and  in  the  downfall 
of  Babylon  while  the  Jewish  people  were  pre- 
served. Candid  critics  of  the  Bible  recognize  • 
that  the  Pharisees  embraced  the  most  pious  and 
patriotic  and  many  of  the  ablest  Jews,  including 
Paul  before  his  conversion. 

So  frankly  does  the  Old  Testament  teach  the 


24  God's  Missionary  Plan 

Particularism   ^octrine  of  particularism  in  blessings  that  some 

Misinter-  ,.««.•,  .  .        ,  ,  ,     , 

preted  of  the  higher  critics  have  adopted  the  erroneous 

conviction  that  the  God  of  Israel  was  originally 

a  tribal  God,  and  that  the  Israelites  themselves 

did  not  recognize  the  obligation  of  other  nations 

to  accept  their  tribal  divinity.  These  critics  cite 

the  teachings  of  the  Old  Testament  in  regard 

to  the  extermination  of  the  Canaanites,  the  prayer 

of   the    137th    Psalm    for    revenge    upon    one's 

enemies,    the   prayer   of   Jeremiah    10.    25,    for 

God's    wrath   upon   the   heathen,    and   Jonah's 

anger  at  the  sparing  of  Nineveh,  as  furnishing 

literary  indications  of  the  gradual  but  imperfect 

emergence  of  the  Israelitish  religion  from  the 

stage  of  worship  of  a  tribal  God. 

Jesus' Own         There  has  been  further  cited  in  favor  of  the 

National        particularistic  conception  of  even  the  New  Testa- 

Reiations       meut  the  fact  that  while  Jesus  called  himself  the 

Son  of  man,  nevertheless  he  devoted  his  life  to 

the  Jewish  race.     When  aroused  by  the  cry  of 

need  of  the  outside  world,  he  said:    "I  was  not 

sent  but  unto  the  lost  sheep  of  the  house  of 

Israel."     It  is  still  more  striking  that  Jesus  did 

not  call  a  single  apostle  from  the  Gentile  world. 

Surely  there  seems  to  be  some  sort  of  divine 

election  running  through  the  Bible. 

Light  In  favor  of  the  home  view  that  the  Bible  fully 

Flmuy  *     justifies  our  devotion  to  our  families  is  the  fact 

Institution  that  God  has  placed  us  in  this  world,  not  as  in- 


The  Divine  Order  of  Procedure  25 

dividuals  in  relations  of  equal  love  and  service 
to  all  men,  but  as  families,  the  members  of  which 
stand  in  peculiar  relations  of  love  and  service  to 
each  other.  There  are  reciprocal  duties  and 
blessings  attached  to  members  of  each  household 
which  cannot  become  universal.  No  sane  Chris- 
tian advocates  a  community  of  wives  and  children 
as  the  end  of  Christian  brotherhood.  Paul  goes 
so  far  as  to  teach:  "If  any  provideth  not  for  his 
own,  and  specially  his  own  household,  he  hath 
denied  the  faith,  and  is  worse  than  an  unbe- 
liever." Thus  we  see  that  the  doctrine  of  per- 
sonal blessings  runs  through  the  New  Testament 
as  well  as  through  the  Old:  "In  blessing  I  will 
bless  thee." 

Before   missionaries   condemn   their   brothers   Missionaries 
at    home    for    unduly     restricting    their    gifts   Essen"daf 
and    services    to    their     families,    their    home   Privileges 
churches,  and  their  native  land,  let  us  see  whether 
they  have  found  complete  altruism  practicable. 
Missionaries   go   to  Africa   and   China   for  the 
specific  purpose  of  Christianizing  these  peoples. 
But  they  do  not  permit  their  zeal  for  the  salva- 
tion of  the  children  of  the  Africans  and  Chinese 
to  lead  them  to  put  their  children  side  by  side 
with  native  children  in  the  schoolroom  and  on 
the  streets.    Nor  are  they  guilty  of  pride  in  their 
action.    Carrying  the  doctrine  of  the  equality  of 
all  men  in  the  sight  of  God  to  the  extent  of  put- 


26  God's  Missionary  Plan 

ting  their  children  side  by  side  with  the  natives 
during  the  first  fifteen  years  of  their  lives  would 
lead,  not  to  the  salvation  of  the  heathen,  but  to 
the  corruption  of  their  own.  Nor  do  the  major- 
ity of  missionaries  live  in  Chinese  houses,  wear 
the  Chinese  dress,  or  live  on  native  food,  because 
they  think  they  can  render  the  Chinese  a  higher 
service  than  that.  Hence,  however  altruistic  the 
missionaries  are,  they  are  forced  to  claim  for  their 
children,  and  for  themselves  over  and  over  again, 
special  privileges  which  cannot  at  present  be  en- 
joyed by  all  the  Chinese.  "In  blessing  I  will 
bless  thee." 
Denomina-  A  morc  Striking  illustration  of  our  Phari- 
Loyaity  saism  is  found,  still  possibly  in  its  good  sense, 
in  our  denominational  pride  and  loyalty.  Each 
of  us  confidently  claims  for  his  church  the  prom- 
ise, "In  blessing  I  will  bless  thee,"  as  if  that 
promise  were  made  by  a  Methodist  God  to  a 
Methodist  preacher,  or  by  an  American  Board 
God  to  the  Congregational  Church.  Certainly 
the  Roman  Catholic  Church  holds  to  the  divine 
authority  of  that  hierarchy,  and  the  Episcopal 
Church  holds  to  the  apostolic  succession,  and  the 
rest  of  us  regard  our  churches  as  ends  in  them- 
selves, destined  to  spread  over  the  globe  and  to 
exist  until  the  millennium. 

Summing  up  the  argument,  therefore,  we  find 
in  many  passages  of  the  Bible  personal  blessings 


The  Divine  Order  of  Procedure  2y 

promised  to  Abraham  and  to  the  Jewish  nation  Particular 
which  are  limited  to  the  chosen  people;  the  ablest  in  the  °^^ 
and  most  devout  Jews  were  led  by  their  race  Divine 
pride  and  early  exclusiveness  to  transform  the 
Old  Testament  into  Pharisaism.  An  early  Calvin- 
ist  cited  in  favor  of  the  particularism  of  the  New 
Testament  the  saying  of  Jesus  that  he  was  not 
sent  save  to  the  lost  sheep  of  the  house  of  Israel, 
and  the  fact  that  he  did  not  choose  a  single  apos- 
tle from  the  Gentile  world.  All  Christians,  in- 
cluding missionaries,  seek  blessings  for  their  own 
children  which  they  do  not  strive  with  equal  time 
and  effort  to  secure  for  every  other  child  on 
earth.  All  missionaries  labor  for  the  upbuilding 
of  their  own  churches  and  for  the  advancement 
of  the  particular  work  committed  to  them  in  the 
mission  as  they  do  not  labor  for  the  advancement 
of  other  churches  or  of  other  forms  of  service  in 
their  own  church.  In  a  word,  human  nature  is 
finite  and  cannot  strive  with  equal  energy  for 
universal  ends.  Surely,  therefore,  a  recognition 
of  the  limitations  of  human  nature  and  a  study 
of  the  Bible  alike  must  force  upon  us  the  admis- 
sion of  a  divine  election  in  the  bestowal  of  spe- 
cial blessings  upon  individuals  and  families  and 
races  as  the  teaching  of  the  Word  of  God  and 
the  practice  of  the  saintliest  lives. 

Finding,  therefore,   as   divine  a   warrant   for   True  Ground 

«  -  -         .  .      .  ^     .      .  of  Home 

home  as  for  foreign  missions,  we  must  judge  Missions 


28  God's  Missionary  Plan 

as  to  where  we  shall  put  our  means  by  a  study 
of  the  comparative  needs  of  each.  Remember 
that  the  home  work  must  be  maintained :  for  the 
salvation  of  our  own,  as  the  base  of  attack  upon 
the  unevangelized  world,  and  a  base  cf  supplies 
for  the  invading  army.  Indeed  were  Christian- 
ity in  the  United  States  in  danger  of  annihilation, 
even  the  leaders  in  missionary  enterprise  would 
favor  abandoning  the  outposts  and  defending  the 
citadel.  We  have  not  the  slightest  sympathy 
with  those  either  at  home  or  on  the  mission  field 
who  draw  a  distinction  between  the  minister  and 
the  missionary,  and  put  the  latter  upon  a  higher 
plane.  "As  his  share  is  that  goeth  down  to  the 
battle,  so  shall  his  share  be  that  tarrieth  by  the 
baggage:  they  shall  share  alike." 
Equalization  a  gut  as  there  are  at  home  a  hundred  Chris- 
tians who  see  and  feel  the  need  immediately 
before  their  eyes  where  one  has  the  prophetic 
vision  of  the  world  field,  you  may  be  called, 
just  because  you  are  a  statesman  of  the  king- 
dom, to  give  your  funds  for  work  which  lays 
hold  upon  the  ends  of  the  earth  and  looks  toward 
the  consummation  of  the  ages.  We  must  bear 
in  mind  that  the  Christianization  of  the  home 
lands  is  an  even  greater  task  than  the  evangeliza- 
tion of  the  world.  It  demands  common  sense, 
unrecognized  service,  and  daily  drudgery.  But 
we  must  also  bear  in  mind  that  the  first,  last, 


Requisite 


The  Divine  Order  of  Procedure  29 

and  middle  step  in  the  Christianization  of  tlie 
home  land  is  so  to  transform  the  church  and 
the  nation  by  the  cross  of  Christ  as  to  lead  us  at 
least  to  tell  the  good  news  of  redemption  to  all 
for  whom  Christ  died.  The  entire  problem  in- 
volved in  the  Christianization  of  the  race  is  the 
overthrow  of  selfishness  in  the  human  heart  and  Replace  seif 
the  enthronement  of  Christ  therein.  If  the  mo- 
tive which  prompts  one  to  stay  in  the  home  land 
is  a  greater  desire  to  serve,  then  the  unknown  home 
brother  may  wear  in  heaven  a  brighter  crown 
than  the  apparently  more  heroic  brother  on  the 
field.  If  the  men  and  means  are  proportionally 
divided  for  the  task  to  be  accomplished  then  one 
need  make  no  choice  as  between  the  two,  but  offer 
himself  or  his  means  for  each  alike.  But  how  • 
can  we  destroy  American  selfishness  and  enthrone 
Christ  by  retaining  for  eighty-five  million  people 
in  our  own  country  more  than  $38,000,000  out  of 
the  $40,000,000  given  by  us  for  all  purposes? 
Have  we  a  proportional  division  of  the  laborers 
in  the  vineyard  with  one  minister  in  the  United 
States  for  each  554  of  the  population  and  one 
in  China  for  each  219,000  of  the  population? 
Is  not  the  first  and  most  important  step  in 
the  Christianization  of  America  the  teaching 
of  our  people  such  unselfishness  as  will  lead  them 
more  equally  to  divide  the  total  contributions 
given  by  themselves  for  Christian  work  between 


30 


God's  Missionary  Plan 


Home 
Interests 
Moving 
Individuals 


the  eighty-five  milHons  at  home  and  the  nine 
hundred  millions  in  foreign  lands?  Dr.  Wat- 
kinson,  editor  of  the  London  Quarterly  Review, 
states  admirably  the  Christian  philosophy  which 
indissolubly  joins  together  our  home  and  foreign 
work  and  which  will  not  let  us  neglect  the  latter 
in  our  zeal  for  the  former.  "The  missionary  en- 
terprise is  the  very  salt  of  our  civilization. 
Wherein  lies  our  safety  ?  In  spiritual  magnanim- 
ity. If  you  want  to  take  care  of  your  empire, 
take  care  of  your  missions.  The  guarantee  for 
your  splendor  is  your  sacrifice.  You  keep  your 
wealth  as  you  give  it  away  in  noble  causes.  The 
tonic  for  luxury  is  the  generosity  that  does  and 
dares  for  the  perishing.  If  you  want  to  keep 
your  place  with  the  topmost  nations,  you  must 
do  it  by  a  tremendous  stoop  to  those  who  are  at 
the  base.  If  you  want  to  put  a  ring  of  fire  around 
the  grandest  civilization  that  this  world  has  ever 
seen,  put  a  belt  of  mission  stations  around  your 
empire,  and  your  empire  will  last  until  the  mil- 
lennium." 

One  of  the  noblest,  most  generous  laymen  in 
Methodism  recently  wrote  me  that  as  the  Mis- 
sionary Society  had  turned  over  vast  sums  of 
money  to  the  foreign  field  and  left  the  city  in 
which  he  lives  with  its  great  population  and  its 
problems  in  city  evangelization  only  $3,000,  he 
felt  that  he  must  devote  his  contributions  to  the 


The  Divine  Order  of  Procedure  31 

evangelization  of  the  foreigners  in  that  city,  and 
to  the  home  needs  in  America.  This  man  is  not 
narrov^  in  his  sympathies,  because  to  my  personal 
knowledge  he  has  show^n  rare  generosity  to  at 
least  one  sister  denomination,  from  w^hich  he 
could  not  receive  the  slightest  personal  benefit.  It 
seemed  to  him,  as  it  seems  to  everyone  on  first 
thought,  that  nearly  tw^o  million  dollars  raised 
for  missions,  and,  as  he  supposed,  contributed 
entirely  to  foreign  countries,  gives  the  mission- 
aries a  far  better  equipment  for  their  w^ork  than 
our  pastors  have  at  home.  One  of  the  most  un- 
selfish and  intelligent  presiding  elders,  carrying 
the  burden  of  foreign  populations  in  a  Western 
state,  has  expressed  similar  opinions  to  me.  I 
am  sure,  therefore,  that  there  is  need  of  a  frank 
consideration  in  our  church  and  in  other  churches 
of  the  comparative  needs  of  the  home  and  foreign 
fields. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  down  to  the  pres-   Twofold  work 
ent  year  the  Missionary  Society  of  the  Methodist   Missionary 
Episcopal  Church  has  used  the  missionary  collec-  Society 
tions  for  work  at  home  as  well  as  abroad.     In- 
deed,  the   purpose   of   the   Missionary    Society 
frankly  stated  in  all  our  Disciplines  has  been  to 
secure  funds  "for  the  better  prosecution  of  mis- 
sion work  in  the  United  States  and  in  foreign 
countries."     Hence,  of  the  total  receipts  of  the 
Missionary  Society,  forty-two  and  a  half  per  cent 


32 


God's  Missionary  Plan 


have  been  devoted  to  the  home  field  and  fifty- 
seven  and  a  half  per  cent  have  been  devoted  to 
the  foreign  field.  The  General  Conference  of 
1904  provided  for  the  division  of  the  Missionary 
Society  into  the  Board  of  Home  Missions  and 
Church  Extension,  and  the  Board  of  Foreign 
Missions;  and  therefore,  from  now  on,  the  mis- 
sionary collection  received  for  Foreign  Missions 
will  be  divided  among  the  foreign  countries. 

Remember  that  the  home  missionary  collec- 
tion will  be  devoted  to  the  United  States  alone, 
while  the  foreign  missionary  collection  must 
be  divided  between  twenty-six  foreign  coun- 
tries. 

Remember  that  the  proportion  of  the  foreign 
missionary  collection  which  reaches  any  one  of 
these  twenty-six  foreign  lands  must  supply  in 
that  land  the  'needs  which  are  met  by  all  the 
home  collections  combined.     To  illustrate: 

I.  A  vastly  larger  sum  of  money  than  all  the 
Expenses  ^^^^y^i^^^  collcctions  put  togcthcr  is  raised  each 
year  in  the  United  States  for  the  support  of 
pastors  and  the  maintenance  of  the  home 
churches.  But  the  missionary  collection  sent  to 
the  twenty-six  foreign  lands  must  be  used  largely 
for  the  support  of  the  missionaries,  and  later  of 
the  native  pastors  and  teachers.  Perhaps  some- 
one asks,  in  surprise:  "Are  you  not  training  the 
new  converts   in  these  lands  to   self-support?" 


One  to 
Twenty-six 


One  Collection 
for  Many- 
Needs 


Current 


The  Divine  Order  of  Procedure  33 

Yes,  and  the  converts  in  most  heathen  lands  and 
perhaps  in  every  heathen  land,  are  giving  a  far 
larger  proportion  of  their  incomes  for  the  sup- 
port of  the  Gospel  than  are  American  Christians. 
But  we  must  remember  that  at  the  opening  of 
our  work  in  heathen  lands  we  have  no  foreign 
converts  to  be  trained  in  self-support.  We  ac- 
quire our  membership  slowly.  Besides,  we  at 
home  do  not  dream  of  the  poverty  of  the  pagans 
at  the  time  of  their  conversion.  It  has  taken  the 
Methodists  in  America  one  hundred  and  fifty 
years  to  advance  from  the  financial  condition  of 
the  Salvation  Army  to  their  present  financial  con- 
dition. But  the  members  of  the  Salvation  Army 
have  comforts  undreamed  of  by  the  people  in 
Africa,  India,  and  China.  To  ask  these  new  con- 
verts from  heathenism  to  become  immediately 
self-supporting  is  like  asking  your  baby  in  the 
cradle  to  earn  its  own  living. 

2.  Some  portion  of  the  missionary  money  de-  Buildings 
voted  to  the  foreign  countries  must  be  used  to 
build  churches  and  parsonages.  We  have  had 
for  years  a  Church  Extension  Society  in  the 
United  States  to  aid  in  the  building  of  needy 
churches.  That  Society  with  the  several  million 
dollars  contributed  to  it  has  achieved  remarkable 
results  in  the  spread  of  American  Methodism. 
But  at  the  founding  of  the  Church  Extension 
Society,  we  had  in  the  United  States  literally 


34  God's  Missionary  Plan 

thousands  of  churches  already  built.  The  funds 
of  the  Church  Extension  Society  have  been  used, 
as  the  name  implies,  to  extend  the  work  of  Meth- 
odism in  the  United  States.  Upon  the  other 
hand,  at  the  beginning  of  missionary  work  in 
foreign  lands  we  must  use  most  of  our  small  pit- 
tance received  by  each  foreign  country  in  build- 
ing parsonages  and  churches.  For  instance,  the 
Missionary  Committee  at  its  last  meeting  voted 
to  open  work  in  France,  and  devoted  $5,000  to 
that  purpose.  Suppose  Bishop  Burt  decides  to 
open  the  work  in  Paris.  Plainly  his  first  duty 
is  to  secure,  either  by  building  a  parsonage  or 
renting  a  house,  a  home  for  the  missionary  to 
occupy ;  for  how  can  he  appeal  to  Parisian  Meth- 
odism to  build  a  parsonage  for  the  pastor  when 
possibly  we  have  not  a  French  Methodist  in 
Paris? 
Christian  3.  ^e  havc  Still  another  collection  in  our 
Church,  entirely  separate  from  the  funds  raised 
for  the  support  of  our  home  churches,  and  from 
the  Church  Extension  collection,  namely,  the  col- 
lection for  the  Tract  Society  and  the  Sunday 
School  Union.  In  addition  to  the  money  received 
by  this  collection,  we  secure  large  amounts  from 
subscriptions  to  our  periodical  literature.  But 
we  have  already  provided  at  our  hand  in  America 
an  immense  amount  of  Christian  literature  of  the 
Methodist  type,   not  to   speak  of  the   libraries 


Literature 


The  Divine  Order  of  Procedure  35 

upon  libraries  of  general  theology  and  Christian 
literature.  Upon  the  other  hand,  in  China,  we 
must  absolutely  create  a  Christian  literature. 
There  is  not  a  single  text-book  on  philosophy 
written  from  a  Christian  point  of  view  like  the 
books  of  Professor  Bowne.  There  is  not  a  single 
volume  of  Methodist  theology  in  existence  for 
the  more  than  429,000,0x30  Chinese  today.  All 
the  Protestant  missionaries  in  China  are  united 
in  the  revision  of  the  Bible  in  Chinese,  because 
our  early  translations  were  made  before  we  knew 
the  language  well  enough  to  translate  the  book 
accurately.  The  New  Testament  is  now  finished, 
and  the  Old  Testament  is  yet  to  be  revised.  The 
Christian  churches  have  agreed  upon  a  transla- 
tion of  a  hundred  hymns  of  the  ages  to  be  used 
by  us  all  in  our  worship.  And  these  two  books 
are  the  only  two  volumes  thus  far  agreed  upon 
for  common  use  in  China.  Do  you  not  see  how 
great  is  the  need  of  funds  for  creating  and  put- 
ting all  kinds  of  Christian  literature  in  reach 
of  the  429,000,000  in  China,  as  compared  with 
our  needs  for  additional  Christian  literature  in 
the  United  States? 

But  China  is  only  one  of  the  twenty-six  coun-  The  BiWe 
tries  to  be  supplied.  In  India  we  are  now  preach- 
ing in  thirty-seven  dialects,  and  the  Bible  should 
be  put  into  each  in  order  to  reach  the  people  of 
each  region.    In  Africa  we  must  create  a  written 


36  God's  Missionary  Plan 

language  or  languages  into  which  the  Bible  may 
be  put  for  the  Africans,  or  else  teach  these  im- 
mense, ignorant  masses  of  people  one  or  more 
European  languages.  The  American  Bible  So- 
ciety and  the  British  Foreign  Bible  Society  are 
doing  work  of  incalculable  value  in  supplying 
foreign  lands  with  the  Word  of  God.  But  they 
cannot  publish  even  a  line  of  note  or  comment 
on  the  Word;  and  they  need  from  three  to  five 
million  dollars  to  put  the  Bible  in  the  home  of 
every  Chinese  family  able  to  read  and  write  in 
China  alone,  not  to  speak  of  other  needy  nations. 
Fortunately  the  Tract  Society  of  our  church  also 
is  world-wide  in  its  sympathies.  But  it  was  able 
to  send  to  China  last  year  only  $1,550.  A  mo- 
ment's consideration  shows  how  inadequate  are 
these  separate  provisions  of  the  Bible  and  Tract 
Societies  for  the  needs  of  pagan  nations.  Part  of 
one  single  Foreign  Missionary  collection  must, 
therefore,  be  used  to  supply  the  need  for  litera- 
ture in  addition  to  supporting  pastors,  building 
churches,  parsonages,  etc. 
Education  4.  We  havc  in  the  United  States  an  exceed- 
ingly important  educational  collection.  It  now 
represents  the  work  of  two  former  societies  in 
our  church.  The  helping  of  many  young  white 
students  and  of  many  more  colored  students  de- 
pends upon  the  annual  educational  collection  of 
Methodism.    But  the  smallest  part  of  the  money 


The  Divine  Order  of  Procedure  37 

used  for  Methodist  education  comes  through 
our  educational  collections.  For  instance,  during 
1906  more  than  $4,000,000  were  secured  for 
our  colleges  and  universities,  for  our  academies 
and  seminaries  and  theological  schools,  by  private 
solicitation.  Here  again,  turning  to  the  foreign 
mission  fields,  the  single  missionary  collection  in 
addition  to  the  three  purposes  named  above  must 
supply  all  the  funds  secured  for  education  at 
home  by  the  annual  public  collection  and  private 
solicitation.  Better  still  for  the  home  field,  and 
worse  for  the  foreign  field,  under  all  Christian 
governments,  including  the  United  States,  enor- 
mous sums  are  raised  annually  by  taxation  and 
devoted  to  the  education  of  our  children ;  whereas 
no  pagan  government  by  its  own  initiative  has 
originated  and  maintained  a  system  of  public 
education.  The  missionary  collection  must,  there- 
fore, supply  us  in  the  twenty-six  pagan  lands 
not  only  with  parsonages,  with  churches,  with 
pastors,  with  literature,  but  with  colleges,  pre- 
paratory schools,  and  seminaries,  and  in  addition 
with  day-schools,  corresponding  to  the  common 
schools  in  the  United  States  maintained  by  vast 
sums  raised  from  taxes. 

5.  Turning  to  the  hospitals  to  be  supported   imperative 
largely  from  this  single  missionary  collection,  the   Hospitals 
need  of  heathen  lands   is   still  more  appalling. 
But  the  comparison  already  made  sickens  the 


38  God*s  Missionary  Plan 

heart  of  one  at  work  in  the  foreign  field.  I 
cannot  press  it  further.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  the 
members  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  con- 
tribute by  public  and  private  gifts  some  $38,000,- 
000  a  year  for  the  identical  objects  among  our 
85,000,000  people  for  which  they  contribute 
$1,754,239  a  year  for  use  among  over  800,000,000 
needy  heathen  peoples. 
AFairer  Making  our   illustration   still   more   concrete, 

Funds'"  °  y^^  contribute  $38,000,000  a  year  for  use  at  home 
among  85,000,000  people  for  the  same  objects  for 
which  you  contribute  $250,000  a  year  for  use  in 
China,  among  429,000,000  of  your  more  needy 
brothers  and  sisters.  God  calls  me  to  present  the 
facts  to  you,  but  he  has  made  you  responsible 
for  the  decision.  If  you  still  feel  that  the  home 
field  is  the  more  needy,  then  bestow  your  gifts 
in  America ;  but  if  you  feel  that  Christ  would  like 
to  see  a  fairer  division  of  the  funds,  then  help  to 
make  it. 
Verdict  of  a  We  closc  this  brief  resume  of  foreign  needs 
lyjan  with  a  quotation  from  one  who  is  not  a  mission- 

ary or  a  minister  but  a  clear-headed,  successful 
business  man,  John  Wanamaker,  having  visited 
the  foreign  field,  writes :  ''In  all  my  life  I  never 
saw  such  an  opportunity  for  the  investment  of 
money.  As  I  looked  at  the  little  churches, 
schools,  and  hospitals  and  inquired  as  to  the 
original  cost,  I  wished  a  hundred  times  I  had 


The  Divine  Order  of  Procedure  39 

known  twenty-five  years  ago  what  I  learned  half 
a  year  ago." 

Summing  up  the  entire  argument  of  this  chap-  Comprehen- 
ter  upon  the  relation  of  the  home  to  the  foreign  Love 
work,  we  find  that  while  Jesus  makes  the  indi- 
vidual so  far  an  end  in  himself  as  to  be  subject 
only  to  God,  and  makes  ''beginning  from  Jeru- 
salem" the  divine  order  of  the  kingdom,  he 
clearly  teaches  that  the  Law  of  Love  is  universal, 
and  that  the  training  of  our  children  and  the 
building  up  of  our  home  churches  must  con- 
stantly aim  at  equal  blessings  for  God's  other 
children.  Christ  furnishes  the  solution  of  the 
problem  which  confronts  the  modern  church  and 
modern  civilization  by  recognizing  God,  neigh- 
bor, and  self  as  the  three  everlasting  factors  in 
the  moral  and  spiritual  kingdom  and  in  placing 
the  three  in  their  divine  order.  He  did  not  deny 
God,  which  is  atheism ;  nor,  with  Confucius,  con- 
fess ignorance  of  him,  which  is  agnosticism ;  nor, 
with  Haeckel,  lose  God  in  the  physical  universe, 
which  is  materialism.  He  did  not  sacrifice  the 
individual  to  the  community,  which  is  socialism ; 
or  make  the  public  the  victim  of  personal  greed, 
which  is  individualism;  or  sink  both  man  and 
society  in  God,  which  is  pantheism.  Rather  he 
put  each  man  on  an  equality  with  his  neighbor 
and  both  in  perfect  obedience  to  God,  thus  pro- 
viding for  a  Christian  commonwealth  or  world- 


Selfishness 
Sure  of 


40  God's  Missionary  Plan 

family,  based  on  the  fundamental  truth  of  the 
Bible,  the  Fatherhood  of  God. 

Is  it  not  a  striking  fact  that  as  parents  have 
Defeat  Centered  their  affections  and  bestowed  all  their 
wealth  upon  their  children,  these  children  have 
lost  their  spiritual  fiber.  Wealth,  bestowed  on 
families,  has  ruined  so  many  boys  as  to  give  rise 
to  the  adage,  "Where  the  father  began,  the  son 
leaves  off."  More  than  half  our  rich  men's  sons 
would  be  better  off  had  they  been  born  poor. 
What  is  this  but  a  demonstration  that  family 
selfishness  is  a  violation  of  the  law  of  the  uni- 
verse? The  same  law  holds  in  regard  to  ecclesi- 
astical and  national  selfishness.  Can  you  point 
to  any  church  or  nation  on  earth  which  has 
morally  or  financially  impoverished  itself  by  help- 
ing the  weaker  peoples  of  the  earth?  On  the 
contrary,  whenever  a  nation  or  a  church  becomes 
wealthy  and  then  self-centered  and  labors  for 
self-aggrandizement,  or  yields  to  self-indulgence, 
its  sudden  destruction  or  slow  decline  is  one  of 
the  most  impressive  lessons  of  human  history. 
"There  is  that  scattereth,  and  increaseth  yet 
more ;  and  there  is  that  withholdeth  more  than  is 
meet,  but  it  tendeth  only  to  want."  Jesus  states 
the  law  for  nations  and  churches  as  well  as  for 
individuals  in  its  positive  form:  "Give,  and  it 
shall  be  given  unto  you;  good  measure,  pressed 
down,  shaken  together,  running  over,  shall  they 


The  Divine  Order  of  Procedure  41 

give  into  your  bosom.     For  with  what  measure 
ye  mete  it  shall  be  measured  to  you  again." 

There  is  indeed  a  divine  election  of  individuals    Election  to 

.  ,  .      .  ,         .  ,  Divine   Duties 

and  of  nations;  but  it  is  an  election  to  the  per- 
formance of  divine  duties,  not  to  the  enjoyment 
of  divine  prerogatives.  There  is  indeed  a  divine 
call  of  individuals  and  of  nations  running 
through  the  Bible.  It  is  a  call  of  the  individual 
to  serve  the  family,  and  of  the  family  to  serve  the 
nation,  and  of  the  nation  to  serve  the  race,  . 
and  of  the  race  to  glorify  God.  Only  as  both 
the  individual  and  the  community  center  in  God 
can  our  finite  resources  be  reinforced  by  the 
infinite  riches  of  heaven.  It  is  only  as  man 
ceases  to  be  self-centered  and  becomes  God-cen- 
tered that  he  is  able  to  do  all  things.  This  is  the 
secret  of  faith.  Here  is  the  key  to  the  whole 
problem  which  confronts  us.  If  God  is  the  means 
and  I  am  the  end  for  which  the  universe  exists, 
then  egotism  is  religion.  If  God  is  the  means 
and  my  family  or  my  clan  is  the  end,  then  aris- 
tocracy is  religion.  If  God  is  the  means  and  v 
America  or  Germany  or  Great  Britain  or  China 
is  the  end,  then  patriotism  is  religion.  Here  was 
the  error  of  the  Jews.  Will  the  United  States 
repeat  the  Jewish  sin?  If  God  is  the  means  and 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  or  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church  is  the  end  for  which  the  uni- 
verse exists,  then  ecclesiasticism  is  religion.    But 


42  God's  Missionary  Plan 

if  God  is  the  Alpha  and  Omega,  the  first  and  the 
last,  the  beginning  and  the  end  of  creation,  then 
the  individual  and  the  family,  and  the  nations, 
and  the  churches  all  find  their  true  end  and  stand 
together  in  right  relation  only  in  him.  And  so 
Paul  sums  up  the  life  of  the  universe  in  the  pro- 
foundest  text  in  the  Bible:  "In  him  all  things 
consist." 


CHAPTER  III 
The  Old  Testament  and  Missions 

The  end  of  revelation  is  nothing  else  than  the  Missions  the 
salvation  of  all  the  earth.  '*In  thy  seed  shall  all  Revliation 
the  nations  of  the  earth  be  blessed."  Beginning 
at  Jerusalem  is  indeed  the  method  prescribed  by 
Christ.  But  discipling  all  nations  is  the  goal  he 
sets  before  us.  The  divine  warrant  for  missions 
is  found  in  the  reply  to  the  question  whether  the 
divine  method  of  beginning  at  Jerusalem  is  in- 
consistent with  and  invalidates  the  divine  com- 
mand to  disciple  all  the  nations,  or  whether  it  is 
not  rather  the  providential  preparation  for  carry- 
ing out  that  command?  Putting  the  question  in 
another  form :  Shall  we  make  our  personal  salva- 
tion or  the  salvation  of  our  families  or  of  our 
native  land,  an  end  in  itself  or  an  end  in  God? 
If,  indeed,  all  things  consist  in  him,  if  Christ  is 
right  in  giving  us  the  first  command  and  God  is 
indeed  supreme  in  the  universe  and  love  of  him 
is  our  first  duty,  then  the  end  of  all  Christian  " 
activity  is  not  myself  or  my  nation  or  my  church, 
but  God ;  and  all  our  striving,  wherever  it  begin, 
can  end  only  in  bringing  back  to  God  that  which 
is  his  own  by  creation  and  by  redemption. 

Another  method  of  settling  this  question  is  to 
43 


44  God's  Missionary  Plan 

The  Range  of  determine  what  is  the  range  of  the  atonement. 

menf  ^°°*'  ^^  Christ  died  for  only  a  portion  of  humanity,  and 
if  the  portion  which  he  passed  by  and  left  to 
eternal  doom  is  made  up  of  races,  and  if  we  can 
ascertain  what  race  or  nation  is  non-elect,  then 
we  can  safely  pass  that  nation  by.  But  if  Jesus 
Christ's  last  command  is  to  go  into  all  the  world 
and  preach  the  Gospel  to  the  whole  creation,  then 
^  all  elections  of  individuals  or  of  nations  found 
in  the  Bible  must  be  interpreted  as  providential 
preparations  for  the  evangelization  of  all  man- 
kind. If  Jesus  Christ  tasted  death  for  every  man, 
then  all  men  are  potentially  redeemed,  and  each 
one's  salvation  is  possible.  Suppose,  to  use 
Henry  C.  Mabie's  illustration,  a  poor  widow  and 
six  children  were  living  in  poverty  and  disease 
and  ignorance.  Suppose  that  you  alone  knew  of 
an  abundance  of  gold,  left  in  a  vault  unknown 
to  the  family,  sufficient  for  the  supply  of  all  their 
needs,  the  education  of  the  children,  etc.,  and 
suppose  you  knew  that  the  widow  has  the  key 
by  which  she  can  unlock  these  hidden  treasures ; 
and  that  you  left  them  year  after  year  to  live  and 
die  in  poverty  and  disease  and  ignorance,  be- 
cause it  was  not  convenient  for  you  to  go  and 
tell  them  the  good  news:  What  would  mankind 
think  of  you  ?  Surely  the  unevangelized  peoples 
of  the  earth  are  living  in  poverty  and  disease  and 
ignorance  and  sin.     Surely  the  Christians  of  the 


The  Old  Testament  and  Missions         45 

world  can  reach  them,  if  it  is  really  important 
that  we  do  so.  If  Christ  has  died  for  them,  and 
if  they  are  possible  heirs  of  God  and  joint  heirs 
with  Jesus  Christ,  they  have  potential  riches  for 
time  and  eternity  of  infinite  worth.  Moreover 
we  can  tell  these  suffering  nations  and  races 
where  to  find  and  how  to  apply  the  key  which 
will  open  to  them  this  divine  storehouse.  What 
shall  we  say  in  the  day  of  judgment,  if  like  the 
priest  and  the  Levite,  we  pass  by  on  the  other 
side,  and  leave  heathen  humanity  unhelped  by 
the  wayside  ? 

The  very  definition  of  God  given  to  Moses,  "I  The  Definition 
am  that  I  am,"  excludes  the  possibility  of  any 
other  gods.  It  is  barely  possible  Moses  felt 
that  God  might  be  the  God  of  the  Jews  only, 
and  so  he  asked  his  name.  But  the  divine  answer 
renders  impossible  any  partial  conception  of  God. 
We  define  an  object  by  placing  it  on  one  side  of 
the  proposition,  and  then  naming  as  the  other 
part  of  the  proposition  the  elements  or  parts 
which  compose  it.  For  instance,  Water  =  H2O. 
This  is  a  complete  definition  of  water  because 
it  puts  over  against  water,  on  one  side,  the  con- 
stituents which  compose  it,  on  the  other  side. 
So,  if  we  put  God  on  one  side  of  the  proposition, 
the  Old  Testament  insists  that  we  put  nothing 
less  than  God  upon  the  other  side  of  the  propo- 
sition.    "1  am  that  I  am"  is  God's  answer  to 


46  God's  Missionary  Plan 

Moses.  In  this  divine  definition,  God  =  God. 
You  cannot  put  Jehovah  on  one  side  of  the  propo- 
sition and  complete  the  proposition  by  adding 
Jehovah  equals  the  God  of  the  Jews.  You  cannot 
even  make  Jehovah  the  Lord  of  all  the  earth,  and 
say  Jehovah  equals  the  God  of  our  planet.  This 
definition  sweeps  us  beyond  the  conception  of 
tribal  divinities — one  God  for  the  Anglo-Saxons 
and  another  for  the  Chinese;  but  this  definition 
is  not  broad  enough.  You  cannot  put  God  on 
one  side  of  the  proposition  and  put  the  entire 
range  of  creation  on  the  other  side,  and  say 
God  equals  the  universe.  This  is  pantheism.  Put 
Jehovah  on  one  side  of  the  proposition,  and  revel- 
ation declares  that  the  only  other  thing,  person, 
or  god  which  you  can  put  opposite  him  and  make 
equal  to  him  is  Jehovah  himself.  "I  am  that  I 
am" ;  God  equals  God.  In  the  very  definition  of 
God,  therefore,  the  Old  Testament  furnishes  our 
missionary  charter. 
The  Account  jf  ^yg  ^^j-j^  ^q  ^j^g  accouut  of  crcatiou,  again 
we  discover  the  universal  claims  of  the  Bible. 
The  first  chapters  of  Genesis,  with  the  variations 
which  on  their  very  face  appear  between  the  first 
and  second  chapters,  were  not  given  to  teach  us 
science,  although  there  is  a  remarkable  corre- 
spondence between  the  order  of  creation  revealed 
in  the  first  chapter  and  later  discovered  by 
science.    But  these  first  chapters  of  Genesis  were 


The  Old  Testament  and  Missions         47 

given  to  teach  us  theology,  to  make  clear  to  us 
that  God — God  alone — is  the  creator  of  the 
heavens  and  the  earth  and  all  that  is  therein.  The 
accounts  of  creation  found  in  Genesis  carry  us 
infinitely  beyond  the  conception  of  a  tribal  God. 

Once  more,  the  story  of  creation  makes  the  The  First 
first  commandment  universal,  and  banishes  all  n^em 
other  worship.  "Thou  shalt  have  no  other  gods 
besides  me."  The  universal  character  of  the  Old 
Testament  religion,  therefore,  is  found  in  the 
very  definition  of  God,  in  the  account  of  creation, 
and  in  the  first  commandment.  We  have  no 
more  right  to  limit  the  light  of  the  Sun  of 
Righteousness  to  the  Anglo-Saxons  than  we  have 
the  right  or  the  power  to  limit  the  sunlight  to  the 
European  or  American  continents. 

We  have  not  the  slightest  objection  to  a  Par-  ourOodand 
liament  of  Religions,  because  we  are  sure  that  ^0,1^  °'^*^** 
any  comparison  of  other  faiths  with  our  own  will 
reveal  the  universal  Lordship  of  Jesus  Christ. 
But  we  protest  against  men  striving  in  a  Parlia- 
ment of  Religions  or  outside  its  walls  in  the  name 
of  breadth  and  liberality  to  confine  Christianity 
to  the  Anglo-Saxon  race,  and  to  leave  the  Chinese 
to  Confucianism  and  the  people  of  India  to 
Hinduism.  It  is  a  false  liberalism  which  says: 
The  Chinese  have  Confucius  and  the  Western 
nations  Christ,  and  we  ought  not  to  disturb  the 
empire  and  create  strife  by  attempting  to  over- 


48  God's  Missionary  Plan 

throw  established  customs  and  national  religions. 
While  such  statements  smack  of  breadth  and  cul- 
ture, they  indicate  a  reversion  to  the  old  doctrine 
of  tribal  divinities.  If  the  God  of  the  Bible  is  the 
^'God  of  the  Anglo-Saxons  and  Buddha  is  the  God 
of  the  people  of  India,  then  we  have  no  right  to 
foist  our  tribal  divinity  on  an  alien  race.  But 
this  theory,  instead  of  representing  breadth,  is 
based  on  pride  and  bigotry.  Its  advocates  as- 
sume, as  did  the  Jews  of  old,  that  the  God  of 
revelation  belongs  to  us  alone.  Pray  how  did  we 
capture  him  from  the  Jews  to  whom  he  originally 
belonged  ?  If  God  is  the  God  of  the  universe,  if 
Jesus  Christ  is  really  he  through  whom  all  things 
were  made  and  without  whom  was  not  anything 
made  that  hath  been  made,  then  he  is  the  Saviour 
of  all  men,  and  we  have  no  justification  for  rob- 
bing the  people  of  India  and  of  China  of  their 
birthright  in  the  name  of  liberality. 
A  Racial  j^  the  Call  of  Abraham,  which  is  the  earliest 

Blessing  in  ,--,..  c    1        t        •  t 

Abraham's  record  of  the  begmnmgs  of  the  Jewish  race,  we 
Call  find  the  personal  and  the  universal  aspects  of  sal- 

vation :  "I  will  bless  thee ;  .  .  .  And  in  thy  seed 
shall  all  the  nations  of  the  earth  be  blessed."  In 
the  original  call  of  the  Hebrew  race,  in  the  divine 
ideal  placed  before  the  Jews,  is  the  revelation  of 
their  personal  privileges  and  blessings  simply  as 
a  preparation  for  their  service  of  all  the  nations 
of  the  earth.    A  blessing  for  the  race  inheres  in 


The  Old  Testament  and  Missions         49 

the  covenant  with  Abraham.     The  call  of  the  • 
Jews  is  missionary  in  its  very  terms. 

Not    only    the    definition    of    God    given    by   Missionary 
inspiration,  the  story  of  creation,  the  first  com-   psrims^  ° 
mandment,  and  the  call  of  Abraham  are  mission- 
ary in  their  character,  but  we  find  also  in  the 
Psalms  the  conception  of  the  personal  and  the 
universal  favors  of  God: 

"God  be  merciful  unto  us,  and  bless  us, 
And  cause  his  face  to  shine  upon  us; 
That  thy  way  may  be  known  upon  the  earth, 
Thy  salvation  among  all  nations." 

"The  earth  is  Jehovah's,  and  the  fullness  thereof; 
The  world,  and  they  that  dwell  therein." 

It  is  absurd  to  say  that  such  a  literature  origi- 
nated in  the  conception  of  God  as  a  tribal  God 
or  the  God  of  the  Jews  alone. 

"Jehovah  reigneth;  let  the  earth  rejoice; 
Let  the  multitude  of  the  isles  be  glad."  ' 

China  is  in  that  first  refrain,  and  Japan  is  in  the  ' 
second. 

"Oh  sing  unto  Jehovah  a  new  song: 
Sing  unto  Jehovah,  all  the  earth. 

Declare  his  glory  among  the  nations, 
His  marvelous  works  among  all  the  peoples. 
For  great  is  Jehovah,  and  greatly  to  be  praised: 
He  is  to  be  feared  above  all  gods. 


50  God's  Missionary  Plan 

For  all  the  gods  of  the  peoples  are  idols  [things 

of  naught] ; 
But  Jehovah  made  the  heavens. 
Honor  and  majesty  are  before  him: 
Strength  and  beauty  are  in  his  sanctuary. 
Ascribe  unto  Jehovah,  ye  kindreds  of  the  peoples, 

Oh  worship  Jehovah  in  holy  array: 
Tremble  before  him  all  the  earth. 

"Say  among  the  nations,  Jehovah  reigneth: 
The  world  also  is   established  that  it  cannot  be 

moved : 
He  will  judge  the  peoples  with  equity. 
Let  the  heavens  be  glad,  and  let  the  earth  rejoice; 
Let  the  sea  roar,  and  the  fullness  thereof; 
Let  the  field  exult,  and  all  that  is  therein; 
Then  shall  all  the  trees  of  the  wood  sing  for  joy 
Before    Jehovah;    for   he   cometh. 
For  he  cometh  to  judge  the  earth: 
He  will  judge  the  world  with  righteousness, 
And  the  peoples  with  his  truth." 

Surely  the  breadth  and  sweep  of  such  Psalms 
shows  that  the  missionary  conception  is  part  of 
the  web  and  woof  of  the  Old  Testament. 
Evangelic  Turning  to  the  prophets,  we  find  equally  clear 

Universalism      ,  .      .  ,  ,•       »         t^-i  i  itt* 

ofthe  the   missionary   character   of   the   Bible.      Wit- 

Prophets  ncss  the  fine  irony  of  Isaiah's  description  of  the 
idolater  buying  a  tree  and  using  a  part  of  it  to 
bake  his  bread  and  turning  part  of  it  into  an 
image  made  with  his  own  hands  and  then  falling 
down  before  it  and  worshiping  it  as  his  god. 


The  Old  Testament  and  Missions         5^ 

Is  it  not  striking  that  the  very  name  for  idols  or 
gods  found  in  the  Old  Testament  means  empti- 
ness, nothingness?  "His  molten  image  is  false- 
hood, and  there  is  no  breath  in  them.  They  are 
vanity  [or  emptiness],  a  work  of  delusion."  And 
so  Isaiah  so  far  from  limiting  Jehovah  to  Israel, 
and  surrendering  other  nations  to  their  so-called 
gods  cried  out :  "Let  the  earth  hear,  and  the  full- 
ness thereof,  the  world,  and  all  things  that  come 
forth  from  it.  .  .  .  Thou  art  the  God,  even  thou 
alone,  of  all  the  kingdoms  of  the  earth;  thou 
hast  made  heaven  and  earth.  .  .  .  That  all  the 
kingdoms  of  the  earth  may  know  that  thou  art  jeremiah, 
Jehovah,  even  thou  only."  Again  Isaiah  cries:  andMicah 
"Look  unto  me,  and  be  ye  saved,  all  the  ends  of 
the  earth ;  for  I  am  God,  and  there  is  none  else." 
Jeremiah^s  cry  sweeps  beyond  the  Jews:  "O 
Earth,  Earth,  Earth,  hear  the  word  of  Jehovah." 
Micah  foretells  the  latter  days  when  the  Lord's 
name  shall  be  established  in  the  top  of  the  moun- 
tains; and  all  peoples  shall  flow  unto  it.  "And 
many  nations  shall  go  and  say,  Come  ye,  and  let 
us  go  up  to  the  mountain  of  Jehovah,  and  to  the 
house  of  the  God  of  Jacob ;  and  he  will  teach  us 
of  his  ways,  and  we  will  walk  in  his  paths.  .  .  . 
And  he  will  judge  between  many  peoples,  and 
will  decide  concerning  strong  nations  afar  off: 
and  they  shall  beat  their  swords  into  plowshares, 
and    their    spears    into    pruning-hooks ;    nation 


52  God's  Missionary  Plan 

shall  not  lift  up  sword  against  nation,  neither 
shall  they  learn  war  any  more."  Habakkuk  sings 
of  the  time  when  "the  earth  shall  be  filled  with  the 
knowledge  of  the  glory  of  Jehovah,  as  the  waters 
cover  the  sea."  Above  the  babel  of  conflicting 
religions  and  heathen  worship,  listen  to  Zecha- 
riah's  triumphant  song  arising:  ''He  shall  speak 
peace  unto  the  nations:  and  his  dominion  shall 
be  from  sea  to  sea,  and  from  the  River  to  the 
ends  of  the  earth."  Then  Malachi  hears  the 
Lord  God  Almighty  sending  back  the  glad  re- 
frain :  "For  from  the  rising  of  the  sun  even  unto 
the  going  down  of  the  same  my  name  shall  be 
great  among  the  Gentiles ;  and  in  every  place  in- 
cense shall  be  offered  unto  my  name,  .  .  .  for 
my  name  shall  be  great  among  the  Gentiles,  saith 
Jehovah  of  hosts." 
Breadth  of  ^^  hiLve  thus  hastily  presented  only  glimpses 

Old  Testament  -^    ^  J    a         f 

Claims  of  the  whole  sweep  of  the  Old  Testament  in  re- 

gard to  the  universal  claims  of  God  to  be  the 
creator  and  only  rightful  ruler  of  the  universe. 
If  anyone  will  read  the  Old  Testament  with  the 
thought  of  the  universal  claims  of  God  and  the 
missionary  character  of  the  Jewish  religion  in 
mind,  the  scales  will  fall  from  his  eyes  as  they 
fell  from  Paul's,  and  he  will  find  a  missionary 
sweep  in  revelation  rising  infinitely  above  the 
Pharisaism  of  the  Jews. 
As  if  to  make  assurance  doubly  sure,  we  have 


The  Old  Testament  and  Missions         53 
two  books  in  the  Old  Testament  which  seem  to   Purpose  of  the 

-  1  .  .       J   ,  ,       .  .      .  Book  of  Ruth 

have  been  mspired  largely  for  a  missionary  pur- 
pose. The  one  is  the  book  of  Ruth.  Ruth  was  a 
Moabitess ;  that  is,  she  belonged  to  the  race  which 
the  Jews  had  been  commanded  to  annihilate,  a 
race  whose  corruption  merited  annihilation,  and 
whose  destruction  in  general  would  have  been 
for  the  good  of  humanity.  But  to  show  that  this 
harsh  command  rested  upon  the  law  of  each 
nation,  as  of  each  individual,  reaping  what  it 
sows,  and  was  not  a  mere  arbitrary  decree,  the 
Bible  presents  this  picture  of  one  member  of  that 
nation,  who,  because  she  rose  above  her  inherit- 
ance and  environment  and  sought  pardon  and 
protection  at  the  hands  of  the  God  of  all  the 
earth,  was  providentially  guided  to  the  knowl- 
edge of  the  true  God  and  at  last  was  incorporated 
into  the  chosen  people.  Ruth  married  a  Hebrew 
immigrant,  and  through  him  learned  to  love  the 
true  God.  Mahlon  and  Chilion — her  husband  and 
her  brother-in-law,  and  also  her  father-in-law, 
all  died.  Her  mother-in-law,  Naomi,  heartbroken 
and  bereft  of  her  natural  protectors,  in  a  foreign 
land,  resolved  to  go  back  to  her  own  people,  and 
generously  relieved  her  daughters-in-law  of  all 
further  care  of  her.  Ruth  refused  to  accept  the 
proffered  relief  and  remain  with  her  own  people. 
"Thy  people  shall  be  my  people,  and  thy  God  my 
God,"  was  the  high  resolve  of  the  Moabitess. 


54  God's  Missionary  Plan 

And  through  her  choice  of  the  ideals  of  the  Jews 
and  her  acceptance  of  the  Jewish  faith  Ruth 
was  incorporated  into  the  Jewish  nation;  and  a 
Moabitess,  the  child  of  an  outlawed  nation,  be- 
came the  grandmother  of  the  noblest  king  of 
Israel  and  the  ancestress  of  the  Lord.  The  brief 
story  of  Ruth,  who  in  her  sorrow  turned  to  the 
God  of  the  universe  for  comfort,  is  the  inspired 
effort  to  teach  the  Jews  that  their  God  is  no  tribal 
divinity,  but  the  God  and  Father  of  us  all.  The 
book  of  Ruth  was  inspired  by  the  Holy  Spirit 
to  reveal  the  universal  and  missionary  character 
of  the  Old  Testament  religion. 
Book  of  Jonah  Men  havc  sometimes  stumbled  over  the  strange 
Jewish  miracle  of  the  book  of  Jonah.    I  have  no  quarrel 

Narrowness  ^jth  critics  who  regard  the  book  as  an  enlarged 
prototype  of  one  of  the  parables  of  Jesus,  written 
for  the  instruction  of  mankind.  It  teaches  the 
divine  lesson  equally  well  whether  we  regard  it 
as  real  biography  or  as  an  enlarged  parable  or 
story  inspired  by  the  Holy  Ghost  for  a  providen- 
tial purpose.  But  personally  I  find  no  difficulty 
in  accepting  the  miracle,  because,  aside  from  the 
miracles  of  resurrection,  I  find  no  other  miracle 
in  the  Bible  with  so  strong  a  moral  warrant  as 
that  connected  with  the  book  of  Jonah.  The 
Jews  had  become  fully  imbued  with  the  Pharisaic 
ideal.  Their  leaders  had  emphasized  the  call  to 
come  out  from  among  the  nations  and  to  become 


The  Old  Testament  and  Missions         55 

a  peculiar  people  so  long  and  so  urgently  that 
many  of  the  people  had  come  to  regard  the  God 
of  the  universe  as  merely  the  divinity  of  the 
Jewish  nation.  It  was  to  overcome  this  Jewish 
narrowness,  to  teach  that  Jehovah  is  the  God  and 
Father  of  us  all,  and  that  Judaism  must  expand 
into  the  universal  religion,  that  the  book  of 
Jonah  was  written.  Surely  if  ever  there  was  a 
miracle  with  a  moral  warrant,  the  miracle  found 
in  the  book  of  Jonah  has  that  support.  The  * 
whole  book  is  a  divine  effort  to  induce  a  Jew  to 
become  an  evangelist  to  the  people  at  Nineveh; 
it  is  God's  summons  to  the  Jewish  people  to 
missionary  activity. 

You  remember  that  after  Jonah  is  subdued  by   ^  Summons  to 

.iiirz-'i  i-  .1  Evangelize  the 

the  hand  of  God  and  is  constramed  to  go  upon  Nations 
the  journey  and  to  deliver  the  divine  message, 
he  sits  by  in  a  surly  mood  because  the  message 
has  been  recognized  as  from  God  and  the  people 
have  repented.  Jonah  apparently  would  not  have 
been  troubled  over  a  call  to  announce  the  doom 
of  a  heathen  people;  but  he  was  angered  by  the 
fact  that  an  alien  race  listened  to  the  voice  of 
God  and  that  God  proposed  to  spare  them.  He 
is  the  Old  Testament  prototype  of  the  elder  son 
in  the  Parable  of  the  Prodigal.  How  tender  is 
the  closing  verse,  in  which  God  indicates  that  his 
care  extends,  not  only  to  the  heathen  people,  but 
even  to  the  dumb  beasts!     After  God  sent  the 


56  God's  Missionary  Plan 

sun  to  smite  the  gourd  and  Jonah's  anger  had 
been  aroused,  God  said:  "Doest  thou  well  to  be 
angry  for  the  gourd?"  And  Jonah  said:  "I  do 
well  to  be  angry,  even  unto  death."  Then  saith 
the  Lord :  "Thou  hast  had  regard  for  the  gourd, 
for  which  thou  hast  not  labored,  neither  madest 
it  to  grow,  which  came  up  in  a  night  and  perished 
in  a  night:  and  should  not  I  have  regard  for 
Nineveh,  that  great  city,  wherein  are  more  than 
sixscore  thousand  persons  that  cannot  discern 
between  their  right  hand  and  their  left  hand ;  and 
also  much  cattle?"  There  is  nothing  more  ten- 
der in  the  Parable  of  the  Prodigal  than  this 
closing  phrase,  "And  also  much  cattle."  Surely 
the  God  whose  care  extends  even  to  the  children 
who  know  not  their  right  hand  from  their  left 
and  to  the  dumb  brutes  which  perish  cannot  be 
indifferent  to  the  eternal  destiny  of  any  of  his 
children.  The  book  of  Jonah  is  an  Old  Testa- 
ment summons  to  evangelize  the  nations. 
Jewish  sepa-  While,  therefore,  we  all  recognize  the  divine 
Means  to  an  Call  and  Separation  of  the  Jews  from  other  na- 
End  tions  for  their  spiritual  training,  we  must  recog- 

nize that  the  Bible  makes  this  separation  and 
training  only  a  means  to  an  end.  The  object  of 
the  separation  of  the  Jews,  the  purpose  of  their 
training,  was  that  they  might  achieve  for  them- 
selves immortal  glory  by  helping  God  redeem 
what  he  alone  had  created  and  by  bringing  in 


The  Old  Testament  and  Missions         57 

that  glad  time  when  the  earth  shall  be  filled  with 
the  knowledge  of  the  glory  of  the  Lord  as  the 
waters  cover  the  sea.  The  doctrine  of  missions, 
therefore,  does  not  rest  upon  some  particular 
passage  of  the  Old  Testament ;  it  rests  upon  the 
fundamental  conception  of  the  Old  Testament  as   Fundamental 

,      ,  T^     ,       ^1  1  rr^  1  •      /--  •        Old  Testament 

a  whole.  If  the  Old  Testament  teaches  in  Genesis  conception 
the  universal  creatorship  of  God;  if  in  the  first 
commandment  it  demands  his  worship  alone; 
if  in  its  definition  of  God  it  makes  him  all  in 
all;  if  the  very  name  it  uses  for  an  idol  signi- 
fies nothingness;  if  in  Psalms  and  Prophets  it 
summons  all  the  ends  of  the  earth  to  praise  him ; 
if  it  narrates  the  divine  attempt  in  Ruth  and 
Jonah  to  turn  the  Jews  from  Pharisees  into  mis- 
sionaries, then  it  does  not  for  a  moment  permit 
us  to  rest  in  the  doctrine  of  the  ancient  or  the 
modern  Pharisees  that  the  kingdom  of  heaven  on 
earth  belongs  to  a  particular  race.  The  mission- 
ary character  of  the  Bible  inheres  in  the  very 
texture  of  the  Old  Testament.  "And  in  thy  seed 
shall  all  the  nations  of  the  earth  be  blessed." 


tions 


CHAPTER  IV 
The  New  Testament  and  Missions 
Book  of  Turning  to  the  New  Testament,  we  find  the 

LinkTnTthe  ^^^^  ^^  Hebrews  the  connecting  link  between 
Dispensa-  the  old  and  the  new  dispensation;  and  this  book 
reveals  throughout  the  universal  character  of 
revelation.  "God  having  of  old  time  spoken 
unto  the  fathers  in  the  prophets  by  divers  por- 
tions and  in  divers  manners,  hath  at  the  end  of 
these  days  spoken  unto  us  in  his  Son,  whom  he 
appointed  heir  of  all  things,  through  whom  also 
he  made  the  worlds."  The  author  of  the  book 
of  Hebrews  thus  presents  Christ,  not  simply  as 
the  creator  of  the  earth,  but  as  the  maker  of  all 
worlds.  The  writer  then  portrays  God  as  making 
provision  for  a  universal  redemption,  not  a  re- 
demption limited  to  the  Jews:  "Since  then  the 
children  are  sharers  in  flesh  and  blood,  he  also 
himself  in  like  manner  partook  of  the  same ;  that 
through  death  he  might  bring  to  nought  him 
that  had  the  power  of  death,  that  is,  the  devil; 
and  might  deliver  all  them  who  through  fear  of 
death  were  all  their  lifetime  subject  to  bondage." 
Surely  the  possession  of  flesh  and  blood  and  the 
fear  of  death  are  not  limited  to  the  Jews,  and  the 
whole  passage  becomes  absurd  if  we  suppose  the 
58 


The  New  Testament  and  Missions        59 

deliverance  promised  is  limited  to  the  inhabitants 
of  Palestine.  Chapter  seven  of  Hebrews  sweeps 
purposely  beyond  Judaism  and  reveals  the  priest- 
hood of  Melchizedek  as  existing  outside  of  the 
Jewish  nation  and  yet  as  ordained  by  the  most 
high  God.  Finally  we  have  in  the  list  of  the 
worthies  who  obtained  salvation  by  faith,  the 
names  of  Gentiles  like  Rahab  included  among 
the  Jews. 

The  higher  critics  represent  the  apostle  Peter  Peter's 
as  the  most  Jewish  writer  of  the  New  Testament.  Message^ 
But  you  will  recall  that  people  of  all  nations  lis- 
tened to  Peter's  sermon  on  the  Day  of  Pentecost, 
and  he  offered  them  all  salvation  through  repent- 
ance and  faith  in  Jesus  Christ.  The  enumeration : 
"Parthians  and  Medes  and  Elamites,  and  the 
dwellers  in  Mesopotamia,  in  Judaea  and  Cappado- 
cia,  in  Pontus  and  Asia,  in  Phrygia  and  Pam- 
phylia,  in  Eg}^pt  and  the  parts  of  Libya  about 
Cyrene,  and  sojourners  from  Rome,  both  Jews 
and  proselytes,  Cretans  and  Arabians,"  who 
heard  Peter  in  their  own  tongues  speak  of  the 
mighty  works  of  God,  stamps  the  first  sermon 
preached  after  the  ascension  of  Christ  as  a  mis- 
sionary message.  In  order  that  we  might  not 
by  any  possibility  suppose  that  the  inhabitants 
of  these  nations  are  simply  people  of  Hebrew 
blood  returning  to  their  native  land,  the  Holy 
Spirit  added  the  phrase,  "J^ws  and  proselytes," 


Miracle  when 
he  Wavered 


60  God's  Missionary  Plan 

namely,  those  who  were  not  Jews  by  birth,  but 
who  like  Ruth  had  risen  above  their  heathen  en- 
vironment and  had  learned  to  worship  the  true 
God.  Again,  because  Peter  later  wavered  in 
Special  regard  to  the  salvation  of  the  Gentiles,  a  special 

miracle  was  wrought  in  the  sheet  let  down  from 
heaven  containing  all  manner  of  beasts  followed 
by  the  divine  interpretation  of  the  sign  and  the 
call  of  Peter  formally  to  baptize  a  Gentile  and 
receive  Cornelius  into  the  church.  How  clearly 
Peter  sees  the  meaning  of  the  message  and 
the  missionary  character  of  this  call  is  seen 
in  his  exclamation:  "Of  a  truth  I  perceive  that 
God  is  no  respecter  of  persons:  but  in  every 
nation  he  that  feareth  him  and  worketh  right- 
eousness is  acceptable  to  him."  When  Peter 
addressed  his  second  letter  ''to  them  that  have 
obtained  a  like  precious  faith  with  us  in  the 
righteousness  of  our  God  and  the  Saviour  Jesus 
Christ,"  knowing  full  well  that  under  his  own 
preaching  Cornelius,  and  many  Gentiles  on 
the  Day  of  Pentecost  had  become  believers ; 
when  he  urges  the  Christians  to  maintain  their 
"behavior  seemly  among  the  Gentiles;  that, 
wherein  they  speak  against  you  as  evil-doers, 
they  may  by  your  good  works,  which  they  be- 
hold, glorify  God  in  the  day  of  visitation," 
we  see  that  the  missionary  character  of  the 
Bible  runs  through  the  warp  and  woof  of  Peter's 


The  New  Testament  and  Missions         6i 

teaching    as    well    as    through    the    book    of 
Hebrews. 

Paul  shows  most  clearly  the  transition  from  Paul's  vision 
the  Pharisaic  ideal  to  the  Christian  ideal  of  the  ReHgiolT"''' 
evangelization  of  the  race.  He  says  that  he  was 
a  Pharisee  of  the  Pharisees.  The  Protestant 
church  has  laid  not  only  large  but  almost  exclu- 
sive stress  upon  Paul's  doctrine  of  justification 
by  faith.  That  was  perhaps  the  chief  part,  but 
it  was  only  one  part  of  the  two-fold  revelation 
which  accompanied  Paul's  conversion.  The 
other  part  leading  to  the  transformation  of  Paul 
from  a  Pharisee  into  a  missionary  constituted 
an  essential  element  in  his  conversion.  During 
his  three  years'  study  in  Arabia  of  the  Law  and 
the  Prophets  in  the  light  of  Christ  Paul  saw  that 
Christianity  not  only  regenerated  the  whole  man 
as  the  Law  could  never  do,  but  that  it  embraced 
the  whole  race,  as  Pharisaism  never  conceived. 
Paul  now  saw  in  the  downfall  of  Judaism  and 
the  collapse  of  the  Asmonean  movement,  not  a 
failure  of  the  divine  promises,  not  an  abandon- 
ment of  the  divine  program,  but  only  an  appli- 
cation to  the  Jews  of  those  laws  which  the  God 
of  all  the  earth  had  ordained  for  the  government 
of  all  his  children ;  Paul  now  realized  that  the  ^ 
election  of  the  Jews  was  a  divine  call  and  a  divine 
preparation  for  the  providential  service  of  the 
race;  Paul  now  caught  a  vision  of  Judaism  ex- 


62  God's  Missionary  Plan 

panding  into  a  universal  religion  and  of  an  infi- 
nitely larger  destiny  for  his  native  people  than 
he  had  ever  dreamed  of  as  a  Pharisee.    He  sums 
up  this  nobler  conception  of  the  divine  program, 
which  embraces  not  only  the  Jews,  but  all  the 
families  of  the  earth,  in  the  following  inspired 
^   words:    "The  God  that  made  the  world  and  all 
things  therein,  he,  being  Lord  of  heaven  and 
earth,  dwelleth  not  in  temples  made  with  hands ; 
neither  is  he  served  by  men's  hands,  as  though 
he  needed  anything,  seeing  he  himself  giveth  to 
all  life,  and  breath,  and  all  things ;  and  he  made 
of  one  every  nation  of  men  to  dwell  on  all  the 
face  of  the  earth,  having  determined  their  ap- 
pointed seasons,  and  the  bounds  of  their  habita- 
tion; that  they  should  seek  God,  if  haply  they 
might  feel  after  him  and  find  him,  though  he  is 
not  far  from  each  one  of  us:  for  in  him  we  live 
and  move  and  have  our  being."    Here  in  one  of 
*    the  noblest  utterances  of  the  Bible,  in  a  divine 
A  Philosophy  exprcssiou  of  the  philosophy  of  history,  we  see 
of  History       p^^j  fisiug  infinitely  above  Pharisaism  and  be- 
coming   the    evangelist    of    the    nations.      The 
church    of    the    Reformation    in    the    sixteenth 
century  wisely  emphasized  that  side  of   Paul's 
conversion  called  justification  by  faith ;  the  mis- 
'^  sionary  church   of  the  twentieth  century   with 
equal  wisdom  will  lay  the  predominant  emphasis 
upon  the  equally  profound  change  which  trans- 


The  New  Testament  and  Missions        63 

formed   Saul  the   Pharisee   into   Paul   the  mis- 
sionary. 

John  was  such  a  bigoted  Pharisee  that  when  John's  Trans- 

1  1  •      •    -I  <•     <        -» *-  1  •  formation  of 

he  met  a  disciple  of  the  Master  who  was  casting  view 
out  devils  in  Christ's  name  he  forbade  him,  be- 
cause he  followed  not  the  other  disciples.  Even 
when  the  Master  was  on  the  final  journey  to 
Jerusalem  for  the  crucifixion  and  certain  Samari- 
tans forbade  him  to  enter  their  village,  John 
started  to  call  down  fire  from  heaven  to  consume 
them.  Well  was  he  named  the  Son  of  Thunder. 
But  before  John  was  called  to  write  the  book  of 
Revelation  he  had  caught  the  world-wide  outlook 
for  the  Gospel  and  he  writes :  "Worthy  art  thou 
to  take  the  book,  and  to  open  the  seals  thereof: 
for  thou  wast  slain,  and  didst  purchase  unto  God 
with  thy  blood  men  of  every  tribe,  and  tongue, 
and  people,  and  nation" ;  and  at  the  close  of  the 
book  he  sees  the  vision  of  the  kings  of  the  earth 
bringing  their  glory  into  the  new  Jerusalem,  and 
of  the  nations  walking  in  the  light  of  the  glory 
of  God.  Moreover,  fifty  years  of  Christian  ex- 
perience under  the  lead  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
brought  John  to  a  position  so  infinitely  in  advance 
of  Pharisaism  that  in  the  very  prologue  of  his 
Gospel  he  announces  Christ  as  "the  true  light, 
even  the  light  which  lighteth  every  man,  coming 
into  the  world" ;  and  he  alone  of  the  disciples  re- 
calls John  the  Baptist's  inspired  description  of  the 


64  God's  Missionary  Plan 

Master :  "Behold,  the  Lamb  of  God,  that  taketh 

away  the  sin  of  the  world  1" 
Christ  the        Jesus  Christ  is  the  supreme  representative  of 
Supreme      ^^^  missionary  conception  of  the  New  Testament. 

Missionary  -'  ^ 

Only  on  the  hypothesis  of  the  offer  of  salvation 
to  all  men  and  of  Christ's  purpose  that  the  Gospel 
should  be  preached  to  all  the  world  can  the 
words  and  acts  of  Jesus  be  understood.  He 
called  himself  the  Son  of  man,  and  refused  the 
Jewish  title  of  Messiah  until  his  break  with  the 
Pharisees  robbed  this  divine  title  of  all  taint  of 
Jewish  exclusiveness.  He  announced  his  mission 
in  the  words,  "The  Son  of  man  came  to  seek 
and  to  save  that  which  was  lost."  If  the  Jews 
admitted  themselves  to  be  the  only  persons  lost 
through  sin,  they  could  claim  Jesus  as  their  ex- 
clusive Saviour.  But  if  all  men  are  lost  through 
sin,  then  Jesus  came  to  save  all.  The  first  words 
of  the  Lord's  prayer,  "Our  Father,"  teach  the 
Fatherhood  of  God  and  the  brotherhood  of  men. 
V  The  petition,  "Thy  kingdom  come.  Thy  will  be 
done,  as  in  heaven,  so  on  earth,"  cannot  be 
uttered  by  anyone  who  expects  the  kingdom  to 
be  limited  to  any  single  race.  A  child  cannot 
learn  the  Lord's  prayer  without  becoming  an 
incipient  missionary. 
Wide  Mean-       Evcry  parable  Jesus  spoke,  every  principle  he 

ingofPara-  .  ,     .         <•         .  ,  ,.        •  tt 

bie  and  enunciated,  is  of  universal  application.    How  can 

Principle        Q^e  interpret  the  parables  of  the  Lost  Piece  of 


Alone 


The  New  Testament  and  Missions        65 

Money  or  of  the  Lost  Sheep,  over  which  the 
shepherd  rejoices  more  than  over  the  ninety  and 
nine  who  went  not  astray,  and  yet  limit  the  teach- 
ing of  Jesus  to  the  Jews  alone?  Such  a  limitation  Not  for  jews 
is  a  contradiction  of  these  parables.  The  Para- 
ble of  the  Great  Supper  teaches  the  call  of 
nations  in  the  highways  and  the  hedges  as 
well  as  of  individuals.  The  Parable  of  the 
Prodigal  Son  is  spoken  especially  to  warn  the 
Jews  that  the  Gentiles  may  yet  return  to  God 
and  find  a  welcome  home.  It  is  true  that  Jesus 
said  to  the  Syrophoenician  woman,  "I  was  not  sent 
but  unto  the  lost  sheep  of  the  house  of  Israel." 
But  the  glad  leap  of  his  heart  at  her  persistence 
shows  that  he  said  it  only  to  deepen  her  faith. 
*'0  woman,  great  is  thy  faith:  be  it  done  unto 
thee  even  as  thou  wilt."  Jesus's  recognition  of 
the  centurion's  faith,  and  his  declaration,  "Many 
shall  come  from  the  east  and  the  west,  and  shall 
sit  down  with  Abraham,  and  Isaac,  and  Jacob, 
in  the  kingdom  of  heaven:  but  the  sons  of  the 
kingdom  shall  be  cast  forth  into  the  outer  dark- 
ness," awakened  the  antagonism  of  the  Pharisees. 
They  saw  at  once  that  Jesus  was  denying  their 
exclusive  privileges  and  was  opening  the  king- 
dom to  all  men.  The  Parable  of  the  Laborers  in 
the  Vineyard  applies  to  nations  as  well  as  to  indi- 
viduals. The  Jews  as  the  theocratic  nation  had 
borne  the  burden  and  heat  of  the  day.     In  this 


66 


God's  Missionary  Plan 


Last 

Commission 
Crowns 
Other 
Teachings 


parable  Jesus  teaches  that  nations,  which  had 
apparently  done  nothing  for  the  kingdom  but 
had  been  waiting  during  the  centuries  for  their 
appointed  tasks,  were  to  be  given  an  equal  oppor- 
tunity with  the  Jews. 

Jesus  does  not  leave  us  to  inferences  drawn 
from  the  study  of  his  parables.  He  plainly 
says  to  Nicodemus:  *'God  so  loved  the  world, 
that  he  gave  his  only  begotten  Son,  that  whoso- 
ever believeth  on  him  should  not  perish,  but  have 
eternal  life."  It  is  the  "whosoevers"  which  run 
like  a  golden  thread  through  the  New  Testa- 
ment; it  is  such  promises  as  "Ask  and  ye  shall 
receive,  seek  and  ye  shall  find,  knock  and  it  shall 
be  opened  unto  you";  it  is  such  passages  as  we 
find  in  the  Lord's  Prayer,  and  such  testimonies 
as  are  borne  by  John  the  Baptist  and  John  the  be- 
loved disciple  to  Jesus  as  the  lamb  of  God  who 
taketh  away  the  sins  of  the  world;  it  is  Jesus's 
declaration  that  all  the  nations  of  the  earth  shall 
be  called  before  him  for  final  judgment,  which 
makes  Christianity  the  religion  of  the  race  and 
our  preaching  necessarily  missionary.  Thus  a 
candid  study  of  the  Gospels  compels  the  mission- 
ary interpretation  of  the  teachings  of  Jesus  in- 
dependently of  the  last  commission,  and  such  a 
study  makes  that  last  commission,  so  frequently 
quoted  as  the  only  authority  for  missions,  "Go 
ye  into  all  the  world  and  make  disciples  of  all  the 


The  New  Testament  and  Missions        67 

nations,"  the  only  logical  or  possible  conclusion 
of  the  teachings  of  the  Master. 

Indeed,  we  may  say  that  Jesus  suffered  death  Jesus's  Death 
rather  than  abandon  his  missionary  ideal.  When  wSonrry 
Pilate  asked  him  if  he  was  a  king,  Jesus  used  the  ideal 
strongest  affirmative  in  answering :  "Thou  sayest 
that  I  am  a  king.  .  .  .  Every  one  that  is  of  the 
truth  heareth  my  voice."  The  Jews  would  have 
died  for  him  in  order  to  enable  him  to  make  good 
his  claim  of  kingship  in  their  sense  of  the  word 
and  thus  to  establish  their  supremacy  over  the 
Romans.  Gladly  would  they  have  given  their 
lives  in  a  struggle  under  his  leadership  for  the 
rulership  of  all  the  nations.  But  when  Jesus  in- 
terpreted kingship  in  its  divine  sense,  and  sum- 
moned them  to  serve  rather  than  to  rule,  and  to 
serve  all  men  rather  than  the  Jews  alone,  the 
break  between  the  Pharisaic  party  and  Jesus  be- 
came inevitable.  Surely  with  the  marvelous  in- 
sight into  character  and  motives  which  Jesus 
showed  throughout  his  public  life,  he  must  have 
seen  that  he  could  avoid  death  at  the  hands  of 
his  fellow  countrymen  if  he  would  abandon  his 
ideal.  That  ideal  was  rulership  through  service 
rather  than  through  divine  prerogative,  and  that 
service  was  the  service  of  the  race  rather  than 
of  the  Jews  alone.  Jesus's  plan  of  life  is  as  clearly  ^ 
violated  by  the  American  who  says,  "Christ  is 
for  the  Anglo-Saxons   and   Confucius   for  the 


68  God's  Missionary  Plan 

Chinese,"  as  it  was  contradicted  by  the  Jews. 
Jesus's  ideal  is  as  certainly  lowered  by  the  Eng- 
lish Christian  who  says,  "My  service  and  money 
are  for  England,"  as  by  the  Pharisee  who  said, 
"My  duty  and  devotion  are  to  Palestine."  It  is 
at  least  significant  that  Jesus  preferred  death  to 
the  acceptance  at  the  hands  of  the  Jews  of  the 
identical  program  which  the  opponents  of  modern 
missions  mark  out  for  him. 

The  ^     jhe  whole  trend  of  history  is  toward  the  em- 

Movement  ,,.  -1  ..  .^,^ 

of  History  bodmicnt  of  the   missionary   ideal.     In  ancient 

history,  conquest  was  the  vice  of  nations,  tyranny 
the  vice  of  monarchs,  slavery  the  vice  of  families. 
Modern  nations  are  moving  toward  democracy. 
Mr.  Stead,  in  The  Americanization  of  the 
World,  has  pointed  out  the  fact  that  representa- 
tive government  has  been  adopted  during  the 
nineteenth  century  by  every  nation  of  Europe 
save  Russia,  and  by  every  nation  in  South  Amer- 
ica. Russia  and  China  are  now  entering  upon 
the  transition  from  autocratic  to  representative 
institutions.  Equal  opportunities  for  all  men  is 
the  ideal  toward  which  modern  civilization  is 
tending.  Equal  opportunities  in  business  is  the 
goal  toward  which  the  struggle  between  labor 
and  capital  is  slowly  moving.  The  dishonor  with 
which  a  rich  man  who  leaves  nothing  for  the 
public  welfare  sinks  into  his  grave,  the  very  sav- 
agery with  which  the  greed  of  the  rich  man  is 


The  New  Testament  and  Missions        69 

criticized  today,  is  due  to  the  fact  that  modern 
civilization  is  moving  swiftly  toward  the  ideal  of 
service  rather  than  of  selfishness ;  and  the  strug- 
gle  for   world-wide   federations   of   labor,   the  ^ 
growth  of  the  Hague  tribunal,  the  formation  of 
international  alliances,  show  that  men  and  na- 
tions alike  are  acquiring  the  world  outlook.    In  ^ 
a  word,  the  whole  trend  of  modern  industrial  and 
political  history   is  becoming  missionary  in   its 
character.     This  is  brought  out  clearly  in  Pro-  < 
fessor  Stevenson's  brilliant  book,  The  Mission- 
ary Interpretation  of  History. 

If  we  are  right  in  our  interpretation  of  the  Missions  the 
restless  struggles  of  our  times,  and  of  the  Bible,   Purpose  of  the 
then  missions  are  not  a  department  of  church  church 
activity,  the  evangelization  of  the  world  is  not 
one  of  the  varied  functions  of  the  church  to  be 
fulfilled  by  an  annual  collection  put  upon  the 
same  plane  with  a  dozen  others ;  it  is  the  goal  of  - 
all  church  labor,   it  is  the  end  for  which  the 
Christian    church    exists.      Mr.    Gladstone    was » 
right  in  saying,  "The  missionary  problem  is  the 
one  great  question  of  the  age."     The  Anglican 
and  Protestant  Episcopal  Bishops  in  that  great 
Lambeth   Conference  were  right  in  declaring: 
"Missions  constitute  the  primary  work  for  which 
the   church   was   commissioned   by   our   Lord." 
The   Presbyterian   Church  voiced  the  ideal  of 
Christendom  in  the  declaration,   "The  Presby- 


70  God's  Missionary  Plan 

terian  Church  is  a  missionary  society  whose  chief 
business  is  the  propagation  of  the  Gospel  to  the 
uttermost  parts  of  the  earth."    God  helped  John 
Wesley  in  saying,  "The  world  is  my  parish." 
Thoughts       j^  jg  because  missionaries  are  ensfasfed  in  world 

Imperial  *^    ° 

in  their  couqucsts  that  their  thoughts  have  an  imperial 
Sweep  sweep.  It  is  because  they  are  working  in  the 
line  of  the  divine  providence  that  their  language 
is  optimistic,  that  their  plans  have  the  strength 
of  the  ages  in  them,  and  their  lives  have  the 
peace  and  the  power  of  God.  They  stand  on  the 
Bible's  opening  revelation  of  God's  creatorship 
of  all  men,  and  they  are  bringing  the  prodigal 
nations  back  to  the  Father's  house.  They 
are  true  sons  of  Abraham  in  whom  God  is  ful- 
filling the  promise  of  the  covenant :  "And  in  thy 
seed  shall  all  the  nations  of  the  earth  be  blessed." 
They  are  bringing  in  the  everlasting  triumph  of 
that  Messiah  of  whom  the  prophets  spoke  and 
psalmists  sang.  They  are  spiritual  brothers  and 
sisters  of  Peter  and  Paul  who,  for  the  spread  of 
the  kingdom,  poured  out  their  blood  in  foreign 
lands.  They  are  following  in  the  footsteps  of 
-  Jesus  Christ,  who  was  an  only  Son,  and  yet  be- 
came a  foreign  missionary.  And  so  the  mission- 
aries in  India,  and  China,  and  Japan,  and  Africa, 
are  summoning  the  nations  of  the  earth  to  join  in 
worshiping  one  "God  and  Father  of  all,  who  is 
over  all,  and  through  all,  and  in  all." 


CHAPTER  Y; 
The  Divine  Method  of  Securing  Power 
Thus  far  we  have  considered  the  Divine  Pur-   "^^^  Question 

of  Power 

pose,  the  Divine  Plan  of  Procedure,  the  Old 
Testament  and  Missions,  and  the  New  Testa- 
ment and  Missions.  The  basis  for  the  evangeliza- 
tion of  the  race  is  the  divine  purpose  "in  the  full- 
ness  of  the  times  to  sum  up  all  things  in  Christ." 
The  motive  for  missions  is  the  cross  of  Christ; 
and  the  cross  has  a  twofold  significance  for  the 
evangelization  of  the  race:  First,  "Beloved,  if 
God  so  loved  us,  we  ought  also  to  love  one  an- 
other." Second,  if  Jesus  Christ  tasted  of  death 
for  every  man,  if  all  our  brothers  and  sisters 
throughout  the  earth  are  redeemed  by  the  cross, 
surely  we  ought  to  let  each  one  know  of  a  re- 
demption purchased  at  so  great  a  cost.  But  the 
weightiest  question  yet  awaits  us,  namely.  How  * 
may  the  church  at  home  and  the  missionaries 
upon  the  field  gain  the  power  to  evangelize  and 
Christianize  the  race? 

A  study  of  the  divine  commission  to  evangelize  Pledge  and 
the  world  shows  clearly  that  it  opens  with  a 
pledge  of  power:  "All  authority  is  given  unto 
me  in  heaven  and  in  earth."  Then  follows  the 
command  to  baptize  all  nations  and  teach  them 
71 


72 


God's  Missionary  Plan 


For  Evangel- 
ization 


For 

Christianiza- 

tion 


to  observe  all  that  Jesus  has  commanded  us.  And 
this  is  followed  by  the  still  grander  promise  that 
the  divine  Presence  and  Power  are  to  accompany 
us  in  our  task :  "And  lo,  I  am  with  you  always, 
even  unto  the  end  of  the  world." 

A  study  of  this  divine  promise  will  show  that 
it  is  a  divine  provision  made  for  the  evangeliza- 
tion of  the  race.  A  careful  study  of  the  condi- 
tions on  the  field  forces  us  to  recognize  that  the 
missionaries  themselves  often  lack  the  power  of 
perfect  self-control  and  perfect  self-denial.  They 
are  human  and  frail  and  sometimes  sinful,  as  are 
Christians  at  home.  Above  all,  they  often  lack 
the  faith  and  power  to  bring  to  a  new  birth  in 
Christ  those  for  whom  they  are  travailing  in 
spirit.  Surely,  therefore,  there  is  need  on  the 
foreign  field  for  the  realization  of  the  divine 
promise:  "And  lo,  I  am  with  you  always,  even 
unto  the  end  of  the  world." 

While  this  promise  may  seem  to  be  limited  to 
missionaries  on  the  field,  we  are  sure  that  evan- 
gelization is  never  separated  in  the  divine  mind 
from  Chrlstianization.  Both  are  included  in  the 
divine  purpose  to  sum  up  all  things  in  Christ. 
Hence  the  promise  is  as  available  for  home  as  for 
foreign  use.  Besides,  the  Bible  is  full  of  prom- 
ises of  similar  import  which  no  one  would  dream 
of  limiting  to  missionaries.  "If  any  man  lack 
wisdom,  let  him  ask  of  God,  who  giveth  to  all 


The  Divine  Method  of  Securing  Power    y^^ 

men  liberally  and  upbraideth  not."  "Come  unto 
me  all  ye  that  labor  and  are  heavy  laden,  and  I 
will  give  you  rest."  "My  grace  shall  be  suffi- 
cient for  you."  "Ye  shall  receive  power  after 
that  the  Holy  Ghost  is  come  upon  you."  Here 
are  promises  of  wisdom,  of  peace,  of  grace,  and 
of  power  for  all  Christians. 

But  will  not  an  open-minded  reading  of  the  ^he 
New  Testament,  upon  the  one  side,  and  a  candid  ^f  the  s^^*r^° 
examination  of  our  own  lives  on  the  other,  con- 
vince most  of  us  at  least  that  we  are  still 
strangers  to  many  of  the  most  precious  promises 
of  God,  that  for  some  cause  or  other  we  have 
not  realized  these  pledges  of  wisdom  and  grace 
and  power  so  freely  made  to  us  by  our  heavenly 
Father?  I  believe  this  is  because  we  have  not 
entered  fully  upon,  perhaps  have  not  fully  real- 
ized the  existence  of,  the  dispensation  of  the 
Spirit. 

The  most  casual  reader  recognizes  the  twofold  ^«Ja*»°°  o*" 
division  of  the  Bible  into  Old  and  New  Testa-  spirit 
ments.  A  careful  reading  of  the  Bible  leads  me 
to  the  conviction  that  there  are  not  two,  but  three 
fundamental  divisions  in  the  volume  as  a  whole. 
There  is  the  dispensation  of  Law,  the  dispensation 
of  the  Gospel,  and  the  dispensation  of  the  Spirit. 
One  must  not  infer  from  this  statement  that  there 
are  three  revelations  any  more  than  he  infers 
from  the  Christian  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  that 


74  God's  Missionary  Plan 

there  are  three  Gods.  Jesus  Christ  came  to 
enable  the  human  race  more  fully  than  ever  be- 
fore to  fulfill  all  the  law  and  the  prophets,  and 
he  is  thus  the  culmination  of  the  dispensation  of 
the  Law.  So  also  the  Holy  Spirit  was  given  that 
he  might  complete  the  dispensation  of  the  Son. 
"But  the  Comforter,  the  Holy  Spirit,  whom  the 
Foretelling  Father  will  send  in  my  name,  he  shall  teach  you 
^"•^    .  all  thing:s,  and  bring"  to  your  remembrance  all 

Fulfilling  °    '  is  J 

that  I  said  unto  you."  In  return  both  the  dis- 
pensation of  the  Law  and  of  the  Gospel  foretell  the 
dispensation  of  the  Spirit  as  the  age  in  which 
they  shall  find  their  embodiment  and  realization. 
"And  it  shall  come  to  pass  afterward  that  I  will 
pour  out  my  Spirit  upon  all  flesh;  .  .  .  And 
it  shall  come  to  pass  that  whosoever  shall  call 
on  the  name  of  Jehovah  shall  be  delivered." 
"And  I  will  give  them  a  heart  to  know  me,  that 
I  am  Jehovah:  and  they  shall  be  my  people  and 
I  will  be  their  God;  for  they  shall  return  unto 
me  with  their  whole  heart."  These  are  Old 
Testament  visions  of  the  dispensation  of  the 
Spirit.  Jesus  calls  the  disciples'  attention  to 
these  prophecies  before  leaving  them;  and  he 
breathed  upon  them  and  said:  "Receive  ye  the 
Holy  Ghost";  he  also  urged  them  to  tarry  at 
Jerusalem  "until  ye  be  endued  with  power  from 
on  high";  he  also  promised  them,  "Ye  shall  re- 
ceive power  when  the  Holy  Spirit  is  come  upon 


The  Divine  Method  of  Securing  Power     75 

you."  These  are  the  Gospel  previsions  of  the 
dispensation  of  the  Spirit.  Thus  each  succeed- 
ing dispensation  simply  enables  us  to  fulfill  more 
perfectly  the  preceding  dispensation.  So  far  from 
rivalry  and  conflict  existing  between  these  three 
dispensations,  they  consist,  or  stand  together,  as 
the  divine  revelation. 

Some  of  our  readers  are  familiar  with  Less-  steps  by 
ing's  Study  of  Human  Nature.  First,  is  the  External 
dispensation  of  childhood  or  infancy,  in  which  obedience 
external  obedience  to  concrete  commands  be- 
comes the  law  of  life.  A  mother  cannot  explain 
to  the  babe  the  nature  of  fire  or  the  delicacy  of 
the  human  nerves.  She  simply  says  to  the  child, 
grasping  at  the  candle  or  the  lamp,  "No,  No," 
and  secures  obedience  by  punishment,  if  need 
be.  The  father  cannot  explain  to  the  little  son 
that  the  family  has  suffered  from  tuberculosis 
and  that  he  must  be  especially  careful  of  exposure 
to  wet  and  cold.  He  simply  must  give  the  com- 
mand and  insist  upon  obedience  to  it  in  the  child's 
early  life.  In  a  word,  the  child's  salvation — 
physical,  mental,  and  moral — depends  at  first 
upon  obedience  to  external  commands.  The 
child  lives  in  the  age  of  embodied  law ;  it  passes 
through  the  legal  dispensation.  The  father  and 
mother  stand  in  the  place  of  divine  authority  for 
the  child. 

Soon,  however,  the  child  enters  the  stage  of 


y^  God's  Missionary  Plan 

Imitation  imitation.  It  learns  the  speech  in  which  its  father 
and  mother  address  it.  It  often  imitates  the  very 
tones  and  gestures  of  those  whom  it  admires. 
The  lad  is  now  influenced  more  largely  by  the 
example  of  the  father  and  mother  and  of  older 
companions  than  by  the  precepts  which  they 
utter  in  his  hearing.  As  he  advances  in  his  edu- 
cation the  boy  begins  to  read  fiction ;  he  becomes 
a  hero  worshiper,  and  the  follower  of  some  leader 
in  politics  or  in  religion.  Virtue  appeals  to  him 
now,  not  tlirough  the  precepts  of  his  mother, 
but  as  embodied  in  some  heroine  whom  he  cher- 
ishes in  his  heart.  It  is  the  age  of  imitation,  the 
age  of  hero  worship.  Happy  are  those  parents 
whose  children  make  the  father  the  hero  and 
the  mother  the  heroine  of  their  early  lives.  Happy 
are  those  parents  whose  children  in  their  com- 
panions and  in  their  reading  come  in  contact 
with  the  noblest  ideals,  and  through  books  and 
society  are  helped  to  higher  and  completer  living. 
Participation;  There  comes  a  period  later  in  which  the  young 
ofPrrcfpt^^^'  man  outgrows  blind  partisanship  and  hero  wor- 
Exampie,  ship.  He  begins  to  master  the  principles  which 
Principle  underlie  parties  and  great  movements  in  history. 
Now,  if  ever,  he  becomes  the  spiritual  son  of  his 
father.  If  the  father's  life  has  been  the  embodi- 
ment of  certain  great  principles  and  the  son 
comes  to  understand  those  principles  and  to  ap- 
preciate them  and  to  accept  them  as  his  own,  he 


The  Divine  Method  of  Securing  Power    "jy 


now  becomes  a  real  companion  of  the  father  and 
fellow  laborer  with  him  in  the  same  great  battle 
for  reform  in  politics,  for  the  renovation  of  so- 
cial life,  for  the  redemption  of  humanity  through 
Jesus  Christ.  The  stage  of  Precept,  the  stage  of 
Example,  the  stage  of  Principle,  are  the  three 
stages  portrayed  by  Lessing  in  his  study  of  hu- 
man nature.  Suggestive  as  is  Lessing's  illustra- 
tion, it  fails  through  representing  Christ  simply 
as  an  example  and  the  Holy  Spirit  as  an  inward 
principle;  whereas  the  deepest  fact  of  human 
nature  is  its  capacity  for  God.  In  him  we  live 
and  move  and  have  our  being.  Christ  is  the  life 
as  well  as  the  light  of  men.  The  indwelling  of 
the  Spirit  is  our  source  of  power. 

The  great  problem  in  Christianity,  as  in  all 
religions,  is  cleansing  from  past  sins  and  the 
closing  of  the  chasm  between  one's  ideals  and 
his  daily  life.  How  shall  we  secure  spiritual 
peace  and  make  the  principles  which  our  books 
of  religion  enjoin  actually  mold  and  shape  our 
daily  conduct?  If  the  Buddhists  or  Confucian- 
ists  or  the  Mohammedans  could  perfectly  embody 
in  their  daily  lives  the  good  precepts  which  even 
their  religious  literatures  enjoin,  the  civilization 
of  such  people  would  surpass  that  of  many 
Christian  nations.  Unfortunately  these  religions 
reveal  no  way  of  cleansing  the  soul  from  sin  or 
of  renewing  it  in  righteousness.     Sad  to  relate 


Chasm 
Between 
Ideals  and 
Conduct 


78  God's  Missionary  Plan 

even  Christian  nations  have  not  thus  far  per- 
fectly realized  the  ideals  of  the  New  Testament. 
^  Upon  the  contrary,  our  so-called  Christian  civil- 
ization, with  the  ambitions  and  lusts  and  selfish- 
ness which  characterize  our  lives,  is  a  travesty 
upon  the  purity  and  peace  and  love  preached  by 
Jesus  in  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount.     Where  is 
the  power  to  come  from  which  shall  enable  the 
so-called  Christian  nations,  or  even  those  indi- 
viduals who  profess  the  religion  of  Jesus  Christ 
and  are  gathered   into   church  membership,   to 
»  realize  their  ideals  ?    This  is  the  greatest  problem 
which   confronts   us   in  the  evangelization  and 
especially  in  the  Christianization  of  the  race. 
Provision  of       Turning  to  the  Bible,  we  find  the  exact  provi- 
through  the    sion  lor  this  powcr  m  the  dispensation  of  the 
Spirit  spirit.     See  how  the  Bible  leads  up  to  this  dis- 

pensation of  the  Spirit.  The  Old  Testament 
everywhere  presents  us  God  as  the  God  of  the 
universe  and  demands  obedience  to  God's  laws 
as  the  condition  of  personal  and  national  salva- 
tion and  prosperity.  This  is  the  substance  of  the 
Old  Testament.  Jesus  Christ  takes  up  the  same 
problem  and  the  New  Testament  reiterates  in 
the  fullest  manner  the  necessity  of  obedience 
to  the  divine  laws :  "Be  not  deceived ;  God  is  not 
mocked ;  for  whatsoever  a  man  soweth,  that  shall 
he  also  reap.  He  that  soweth  to  the  flesh  shall 
of  the  flesh  reap  corruption;  but  he  that  soweth 


The  Divine  Method  of  Securing  Power    79 

to  the  Spirit  shall  of  the  Spirit  reap  life  everlast- 
ing." But  Jesus  knew  that  we  had  all  broken 
the  law,  that  human  nature  is  corrupt,  and  that 
every  human  being  falls  into  condemnation 
through  first  indulging  in  personal  sin.  Worse 
still,  Jesus  knows  that  practically  each  one  of  us 
as  a  sinner  has  fallen  into  bondage  to  satan. 
"For  our  wrestling  is  not  with  flesh  and  blood; 
but  against  the  principalities,  against  the  powers, 
against  the  world  rulers  of  this  darkness." 
Hence  Jesus  died  to  redeem  us  from  the  guilt 
and  power  of  sin,  to  summon  us  by  his  cross  to 
break  our  connection  with  satan,  and  to  enter 
into  union  with  himself.  This  is  the  substance 
of  the  Gospel.  But  where  is  the  power  to  come 
from  which  will  enable  us  to  respond  to  the  sum-  The  Summons 
mons  of  the  Cross,  which  will  give  us  power  to 
repent  or  break  with  satan  and  come  to  Christ, 
to  abide  in  him,  and  to  fulfill  his  will?  Clearly 
this  is  promised,  not  through  the  bodily  presence 
of  Jesus,  which  at  best  would  be  external  to  our 
spirits;  but  through  the  Holy  Spirit  which  he 
promised  to  shed  forth  upon  us  after  his  ascen- 
sion. Hence  it  was  expedient  for  us  that  he 
should  disappear  as  an  external  companion  that 
he  might  reappear  as  an  inward  power.  Just 
so  far  as  any  person  fails  to  respond  to  the  will  of 
Christ,  the  failure  is  due  to  his  lack  of  the  pen- 
tecostal  power  which  the  New  Testament  prom- 


of the  Cross 


Pentecost 


So  God's  Missionary  Plan 

ises  to  all  of  us.  "But  ye  shall  receive  power, 
when  the  Holy  Spirit  is  come  upon  you."  Here, 
then,  in  the  mind  of  Jesus  was  a  distinct  pro- 
vision for  the  power  which  would  enable  indi- 
viduals to  abandon  known  sins  and  to  fulfill 
known  duties,  and  which  would  enable  the  Chris- 
tian church  to  evangelize  the  race  and  to 
Christianize  earthly  institutions  and  transform 
the  civilization  of  the  world. 

But  one  says :  Was  not  the  Holy  Spirit  in  the  * 

Opening    a 

New  Era  wodd  beforc  the  Day  of  Pentecost?  Certainly 
he  was,  just  as  Jesus  was  in  the  world  before  his 
advent.  John  declares  that  Jesus  was  the  true 
light  which  lighteth  every  man  coming  into  the 
w^orld.  So  even  Genesis  speaks  of  the  Spirit  of 
God  moving  upon  the  face  of  the  waters,  and  of 
God  breathing  into  man  the  breath  of  life  and 
man  becoming  a  living  soul.  But  although  Jesus 
was  in  the  world  from  the  beginning,  the  world 
knew  him  not,  and  it  is  appropriate  for  us  to 
designate  the  incarnation  of  Jesus  in  a  human 
body  as  the  advent  of  the  Messiah.  So  although 
the  Holy  Spirit  has  been  in  the  world  from  the 
beginning  of  creation,  it  is  also  appropriate  for 
us  to  characterize  the  Day  of  Pentecost  as  the 
advent  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  Electricity  has  been 
in  the  world  since  creation;  but  man  had  not 
realized  its  presence  or  its  power  or  learned 
how  to  use  it  until  the  present  age.     Hence  the 


The  Divine  Method  of  Securing  Power    8i 

present  age  may  be  fitly  called  the  age  of  electric- 
ity. In  the  same  manner  the  age  succeeding  the 
ascension  of  Christ  and  inaugurated  by  Pente- 
cost naturally  may  be  called  the  dispensation  of 
the  Spirit,  Modern  science  has  revealed  to  us 
larger  and  larger  manifestations  of  electrical 
power;  it  has  given  us  control  more  and  more 
perfectly  of  the  energy  of  the  physical  universe. 
Surely  Christ  has  for  those  who  believe  in  him 
equal  manifestations  of  energy,  corresponding  to 
these  revelations  of  power  found  in  the  physical 
universe.  "Ye  shall  receive  power  when  the 
Holy  Spirit  is  come  upon  you." 

The  dispensation  of  the  Spirit  makes  clear  to   Natural  and 

Supernatural 

US  the  puzzle  between  the  natural  and  the  super- 
natural. Every  act  is  natural  from  the  point  of 
view  of  the  kingdom  in  which  it  belongs ;  super- 
natural from  the  point  of  view  of  any  kingdom 
below  that.  The  law  of  gravitation  holds  in  the 
mineral  kingdom.  But  when  we  pass  from  the 
mineral  to  the  vegetable  kingdom,  we  find  trees 
and  vegetation  growing  upward,  lifting  immense 
weights  of  vegetable  matter  varying  distances 
from  the  earth  every  summer.  Doubtless  if  the 
pebbles  in  the  pathway  could  think  and  speak, 
they  would  regard  as  incredible  the  overcoming 
of  the  law  of  gravitation  in  the  vegetable  world. 
The  law  of  gravitation  is  not  violated  or  sus- 
pended in  the  vegetable  kingdom.    The  moment 


82  God's  Missionary  Plan 

the  trunk  of  the  tree  is  severed,  gravitation  brings 
it  to  the  earth;  the  law  of  gravitation  is  simply 
overcome  by  the  higher  law  of  vegetable  life.  So 
when  we  pass  from  the  vegetable  to  the  animal 
kingdom,  we  have  a  still  higher  manifestation  of 
power  by  which  the  animals  move  freely  about 
upon  the  earth,  or  the  fish  swim  at  will  in  the 
waters,  or  the  birds  fly  through  the  air.  Doubt- 
less if  the  vegetables  could  speak,  they  would 
regard  these  manifestations  as  miraculous.  But 
while  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  vegetable 
this  is  miraculous,  it  is  perfectly  natural  upon  the 
animal  plane.  So  as  we  pass  from  the  animal 
to  the  human  kingdom,  we  find  the  use  of  steam 
or  electricity  supernatural  from  the  point  of  view 
of  the  animals,  but  entirely  natural  from  the  point 
of  view  of  modern  science.  If,  therefore,  there 
is  a  spiritual  kingdom  higher  than  the  human 
kingdom;  if  Jesus  Christ  really  inaugurated  the 
kingdom  of  heaven  upon  earth,  certainly  there 
would  be  manifestations  in  that  kingdom  which 
A  Place  would  sccm  miraculous  and  incredible  to  men 
living  on  the  lower  and  purely  human  plane. 
But  these  miracles,  so  far  from  being  a  stumbling 
block  to  real  faith,  are  simply  the  manifestations 
of  the  presence  of  the  higher  kingdom  inaugu- 
rated by  Jesus  Christ.  "If  I  do  not  the  works  of 
my  Father,  believe  me  not.  But  if  I  do  them, 
though  ye  believe  not  me,  believe  the  works :  that 


The  Divine  Method  of  Securing  Power    83 

ye  may  know  and  understand  that  the  Father  is 
in  me,  and  I  in  the  Father/'  That  is,  if  we  are 
disposed  to  doubt  whether  he  is  the  representa- 
tive of  the  God  of  the  universe,  whether  he  has 
really  founded  a  new  kingdom,  witness  the  mani- 
festation of  power  in  the  miracles  of  Jesus  Christ. 

I  think  most  persons  who  study  closely  the  Wesley's 
spiritual  experience  of  John  Wesley  will  be  con-  p^we?*""  '"^ 
vinced  that  Wesley  was  a  saved  man,  and  indeed 
that  so  far  as  his  will  power  could  go,  he  was  a 
consecrated  man  when  he  was  a  missionary  in 
Georgia.  But  as  a  missionary  he  was  conscious 
of  a  great  lack  of  power  to  bring  either  the 
Indians,  Negroes,  or  the  white  people  to  the 
cross  of  Christ.  John  Wesley  in  the  Moravian 
Chapel  in  London,  after  his  failure  in  and  re- 
turn from  Georgia,  certainly  received  some 
strange  baptism  of  divine  peace  and  power.  So 
deep  was  the  impression  made  on  Wesley's  own 
mind  by  the  experience  through  which  he  passed 
that  from  1738  until  his  death  he  taught  that 
God's  call  to  the  people  called  Methodists  is 
to  bear  witness  to  the  presence  of  the  Spirit 
in  their  hearts,  and  to  spread  scriptural  holiness 
over  the  earth.  We  need  not  distrust  Wesley's 
baptism  by  the  Spirit  at  that  time  and  of  his 
maintenance  of  the  Spirit's  presence  and  power 
from  that  time  on  because  he  says  so  little  about 
his    own    sanctification    and    personal    holiness. 


§4  God*s  Missionary  Plan 

Christian  perfection  is  always  accompanied  by 
humility.  At  any  rate,  in  Wesley  we  are  con- 
fronted with  the  phenomenon  of  a  man  becoming 
conscious  of  the  Holy  Spirit's  witness  to  his  sal- 
vation and  with  the  inflowing  and  abiding  of  a 
divine  power  which  helped  him  in  some  measure 
to  transform  Protestant  Christendom.  Let  us 
have  enough  self-respect  and  enough  confidence 
in  God  to  believe  that  all  men  may  be  equally  the 
recipients  of  his  bounty,  and  that  whether  we 
have  the  call  to  or  the  gifts  for  the  same  work 
which  Wesley  did,  we  have  the  call  to  similar 
consecration  and  may  have  a  similar  blessing 
from  God  upon  the  same  conditions  as  those  upon 
which  Wesley  received  it. 
Spiritual  Indeed,  there  are  tens  of  thousands  of  all 
for  All  ages  and  nations  and  churches  of  whom  Thomas 
a  Kempis  and  Madame  Guyon  and  Fletcher  and 
Payson  and  Finney  are  types  whose  experiences 
were  as  marked  and  whose  victories  were  as 
great  as  Wesley's.  This  claim  of  the  Gospel  is 
open  to  the  scientific  test  of  experiment.  "Oh, 
taste  and  see  that  Jehovah  is  good."  If  we  will 
fulfill  the  New  Testament  conditions,  we  shall 
receive  peace  and  guidance  and  power.  We  our- 
selves shall  be  conscious  of  the  inward  peace. 
The  world  which  observes  us  will  feel  that  we 
have  some  strange  spiritual  power  bordering  on 
the  supernatural  to  them,  though  we  know  that 


Plan  of  God 


The  Divine  Method  of  Securing  Power    85 

such  power  may  be  possessed  by  all  alike  on  the 
same  conditions.  The  skepticism  of  the  world  in 
the  presence  of  the  church  is  due  half  to  the 
blindness  of  unbelief  and  half  to  the  unfaithful- 
ness of  Christians.  I  do  not  think  that  we  may 
claim  power  to  work  physical  miracles.  Jesus 
himself  furnished  physical  miracles  only  as 
crutches  on  which  a  lame  faith  could  walk  to 
him  for  strength ;  and  as  in  the  case  of  Thomas, 
he  deprecated  their  necessity.  Nor  may  we  ex- 
pect the  power  to  repeat  the  achievements  of 
Paul  or  Luther.  Every  man's  life  is  a  plan  of  Every  ufea 
God,  and  not  a  mere  copy  of  some  former  life. 
The  bird  flies  and  the  fish  swims  equally  by  the 
power  of  God;  but  it  does  not  follow  that  the 
fish  can  fly  and  the  bird  swim.  So  you  may  not 
invade  all  Europe  with  your  faith,  as  did  Paul, 
for  that  task  has  already  been  accomplished.  But 
you  may  as  certainly  receive  divine  power  to  do 
the  work  God  calls  you  to  perform  as  Paul  re- 
ceived power  to  discharge  his  heaven  given 
tasks.  Phillips  Brooks  says:  "God  gives  us 
tasks,  not  according  to  our  strength;  he  sum- 
mons us  to  tasks  infinitely  beyond  our  power: 
he  summons  us  to  tasks  according  to  our  strength 
reinforced  by  the  Holy  Spirit."  Paul  found 
the  secret  of  achievement  when  he  wrote: 
"I  can  do  all  things  in  him  that  strengtheneth 
me. 


86  God's  Missionary  Plan 

Enlargement  Perhaps  their  isolation  and  the  appalling  tasks 
Missionary  which  confront  them  have  led  the  missionaries 
Tasks  ^Q  fulfill  the  conditions  and  to  secure  the  peace 

and  guidance  and  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit  more 
fully  than  most  people  in  the  home  lands.  One 
of  Wesley's  followers,  David  Hill,  was  helped 
by  the  Spirit  to  a  life  of  such  consecration  that 
he  became  known  either  personally  or  by  report 
as  an  angel  of  mercy  to  several  million  Chinese. 
Hill  and  Richards  and  Nevius  distributed  some 
fifty  thousand  ounces  of  silver  at  the  time  of  the 
great  Shansi  famine.  And  the  non-Christian 
Chinese  erected  a  monument  in  their  own  pic- 
turesque language :  ^'Everlastingly  to  hand  down 
their  names  to  a  thousand  ages." 
Complete  fhe  fundamental  condition  for  the  reception 

Spiritual  riTTio'-«i  en* 

Receptiveness  of  the  Holy  Spirit  IS  the  repentance  of  all  sins 
which  we  are  still  indulging,  constant  humility 
enabling  us  to  recognize  that  the  power  by  which 
we  walk  is  not  inherent  in  ourselves  but  a  gift 
flowing  moment  by  moment  from  the  Divine  into 
our  own  lives,  and  perfect  obedience  to  the  Holy 
Spirit  as  he  reveals  himself  in  our  hearts.  His 
coming  depends  upon  our  cultivation  of  the  di- 
vine presence,  our  living  in  a  constant  atmosphere 
of  prayer,  our  holding  fast  despite  all  discour- 
agements to  a  constant  expectation  and  assurance 
of  his  presence.  Upon  the  one  side,  I  think  we 
must  recognize  that  our  Christian  civilization, 


The  Divine  Method  of  Securing  Power    87 

imperfect  as  it  is,  is  almost  infinitely  higher  in  its 
morality,  in  its  charity,  in  its  mercy,  in  its 
power  to  alleviate  suffering,  in  its  revelation  of 
the  presence  of  God  upon  earth,  than  the  civiliza- 
tion of  the  Hindoos,  of  Mohammedans,  or  of  the 
Chinese.  On  the  other  hand,  we  must  also  recog- 
nize that  great  multitudes  in  all  our  Christian 
churches  have  not  so  much  power  as  is  prom- 
ised in  the  New  Testament.  For  one,  I  contend 
that  some  power  is  possible  for  us  all ;  that  if  the 
members  of  the  Christian  church  make  a  full 
surrender  of  every  known  sin ;  if  they  stand  be- 
fore God  with  open  minds  and  open  hearts,  ready 
to  receive  the  power  which  he  is  willing  to 
bestow;  if,  on  the  reception  of  this  power,  they 
continue  to  walk  before  him  in  perfect  obedience, 
not  exalting  themselves  above  their  brethren,  as  The  Essence 
has  been  the  danger  with  some ;  and  if,  above  all, 
they  continue  in  perfect  obedience  day  by  day, 
they  may  expect  a  continuance  of  this  power. 
The  experience  of  sanctification  is  not  such  a 
transformation  of  nature  as  renders  one  imper- 
vious to  temptation  and  makes  further  transgres- 
sion impossible.  It  is  such  a  condition  of 
continual  prayer,  of  openness  of  heart,  of  mod- 
esty of  spirit,  of  obedience  of  will,  and  of  grati- 
tude for  divine  favors,  as  secures  the  constant 
inpouring  of  the  divine  life.  "It  is  no  longer  I 
that  live,  but  Christ  liveth  in  me:  and  that  life 


of  Sanctifica- 
tion 


88  God's  Missionary  Plan 

which  I  now  live  in  the  flesh  I  live  in  faith,  the 
faith  which  is  in  the  Son  of  God,  who  loved  me, 
and  gave  himself  up  for  me." 
The  Present         ^J\fQ  must  not  spcak  of  the  prcscnt  age  as  dis- 

a  Triune  .         ^        ,  r     i        r^     •    •  t  t 

Dispensation  tmctly  the  agc  01  the  bpirit.  Just  as  Jesus  came 
to  fulfill  the  Law  more  perfectly  than  it  had 
been  fulfilled;  just  as  the  Gospel  flourished  only 
by  perfectly  fulfilling  the  outward  laws  through 
embodying  the  law  of  God  in  the  heart  of  the 
disciples,  so  the  dispensation  of  the  Spirit  is  not 
a  third  dispensation,  distinct  from  the  dispensa- 
tion of  the  Gospel  or  of  the  Law.  Rather  it  is 
the  rounding  out  and  completion  of  the  former 
two.  We  live,  therefore,  in  such  a  dispensation 
of  the  Law  and  such  a  dispensation  of  the  Gospel 
as  the  Jews  and  the  disciples  of  Jesus  never  real- 
ized. The  modern  world  has  realized  as  the 
Jews  never  did  that  we  are  in  a  universe  of  law, 
and  that  only  by  obedience  to  the  law  is  physical 
or  mentai  or  spiritual  salvation  possible.  Those 
who  enter  most  fully  into  the  dispensation  of  the 
Spirit  realize  as  the  disciples  never  realized  the 
possibilities  of  union  with  Christ.  Indeed,  the 
Master  walks  with  them  on  earth,  lives  with  them 
in  their  hearts,  speaks  with  them  through  their 
lips,  and  works  through  their  lives  accomplishing 
results  which  to  the  unbeliever  seem  super- 
natural. In  a  word,  therefore,  this  dispensation 
is  not  the  dispensation  of  the  Spirit  chiqfly  or 


The  Divine  Method  of  Securing  Power     89 

solely;  it  is  the  dispensation  of  the  Father,  the 
dispensation  of  the  Son,  and  the  dispensation  of 
the  Holy  Spirit. 

Summing  up  the  argument  of  the  chapter,  the  ^^^^^"^J=^ 
evangelization  and  Christianization  of  the  world  Resources 
demand  more  wisdom  and  grace  and  power  than 
any  of  us  is  conscious  of  possessing.  But  just 
as  science  has  revealed  to  us  and  given  us  posses- 
sion of  powers  in  the  physical  universe  of  which 
we  little  dreamed,  so  the  New  Testament  reveals 
in  the  dispensation  of  the  Spirit  the  presence  and 
the  power  of  God  on  earth.  While  the  tasks  set 
before  us  are  finite,  the  resources  are  infinite. 
"Even  as  thou,  Father,  art  in  me,  and  I  in  thee, 
that  they  also  may  be  in  us :  that  the  world  may 
believe  that  thou  didst  send  me." 


CHAPTER  VI 
The  Divine  Method  of  Securing  Workers 
Life  Under  The  divinc  method  of  securing  workers  for 
Direction  ^^^  foreign  field  as  for  the  home  field  is  through 
the  union  of  each  individual  soul  with  Jesus 
Christ.  "Every  Man's  Life  a  Plan  of  God"  was 
the  title  of  the  most  inspiring  message  which 
one  of  our  great  modern  preachers  ever  pro- 
claimed. God  respects  our  individuality;  he  has 
created  each  one  of  us  for  some  particular  work 
in  his  universe  and  no  man  or  angel  can  quite 
take  our  place.  Back  of  all  special  calls  to  the 
ministry  there  is  the  divine  revelation  that  we 
all,  men  and  women,  ministers  and  laymen,  are 
workers  together  with  God,  that  God  has  a  par- 
ticular work  for  each  one  of  us  to  do,  that  he  is 
willing  to  help  us  through  the  use  of  all  human 
and  divine  agencies  in  finding  that  work,  and 
that  he  is  ready  to  reinforce  our  limited  wisdom 
and  strength  with  his  infinite  resources  in  the 
accomplishment  of  our  task.  We  are  all  sure 
that  those  whom  God  calls  to  the  ministry  have 
a  specific,  divine  call  to  that  work.  The  later 
and  broader  interpreters  of  the  Bible  maintain 
that  all  God's  children  may  have  divine  direction 
in  choosing  their  life  work  and  in  carrying  it  to 
90 


Divine  Method  of  Securing  Workers      91 

a  successful  conclusion.  Saint  John  teaches  that 
each  one  of  us  belongs  to  the  kingdom  of  the 
priesthood.  "Unto  him  that  loved  us,  and  loosed 
us  from  our  sins  by  his  blood;  and  he  made  us 
to  be  a  kingdom  of  priests  unto  his  God  and 
Father."  This  is  the  inspiring  thought  which  the 
Bible  presents  to  young  people  today  as  they 
stand  at  the  threshold  of  life. 

Upon   the   other   side,   these   great   privileges   workers 
bring  their  corresponding  responsibilities.   There   vvifhGod 
can  be  no  successful  work  at  home  or  abroad, 
in   the   ministry   or   in   so-called   secular   work, 
unless  the  Christian  feels  that  he  is  working  to- 
gether with  God. 

Mr.  Robert  E.  Speer  is  one  of  the  missionary   "^^^ 

.  Missionary 

statesmen  of  our  age.  But  I  do  not  quite  accept  commission 
what  I  understand  him  to  teach,  namely,  that  the  ^^  Collective 
command  to  go  to  the  foreign  field  is  as  universal 
in  its  application  as  the  command  to  love  one's 
neighbor.  The  two  commands  are  equally  uni- 
versal, but  not  equally  particular.  The  command 
to  love  one's  neighbor  is  addressed  to  every  hu- 
man being,  and  no  one  can  excuse  himself  in 
the  sight  of  God  from  observing  it.  But  Christ's 
last  command  to  evangelize  the  world  seems  to 
me  rather  to  have  been  addressed  to  the  disciples 
in  their  collective  capacity;  it  was  not  obeyed 
literally  by  each  individual  disciple.  To  hold 
that  "beginning  at  Jerusalem"  meant  simply  the 


92  God's  Missionary  Plan 

announcement  of  the  resurrection  in  that  city, 
and  that  James  ought  not  to  have  tarried  there 
to  build  up  a  Christian  community,  is  to  accept 
the  premillenarian  view,  and  to  abandon  the 
Christianization  of  the  race  until  Jesus  returns 
to  earth  in  person.  Some  duties  are  undoubtedly 
collective,  and  I  believe  the  evangelization  of  the 
world  to  be  such  a  duty.  Paul  represented  the 
church  as  a  human  body,  with  a  different  task 
assigned  to  each  member  thereof.  Regarding 
yourself  as  one  member  of  the  body  of  Christ 
and  as  a  member  formed  for  specific  Christian 
work,  the  question  as  to  whether  you  should 
go  as  a  missionary  is  to  be  determined,  not  on 
the  one  side  by  the  feeling  that  everyone  is 
called  to  be  a  missionary  and  you  must  have  a 
special  dispensation  from  God  to  remain  at 
home,  nor  upon  the  other  side  by  the  conviction 
that  no  one  need  go  until  he  receives  some  special 
and  imperative  call  to  missions ;  it  is  to  be  deter- 
mined first  by  the  maintenance  of  such  an  un- 
selfish spirit  as  leaves  you  willing  either  to  go 
or  to  stay,  and  second  by  practical  and  providen- 
tial considerations: 
Filial  First,  one  should  be  free  from  such  obligations 

to  support  or  to  extend  personal  care  to  father 
and  mother  as  preclude  a  foreign  residence.  If 
parents  have  become  dependent  upon  their  chil- 
dren for  daily  care  and  there  are  no  other  children 


Obligations 


Divine  Method  of  Securing  Workers      93 

who  can  render  this  service,  one  ought  not  to  go 
to  far-distant  lands. 

Second,  while  there  are  splendid  fields  for  mis-  Questions  of 
sionary  activity  in  temperate  regions  of  Europe,  Ex^o^s^ure 
northern  China,  southern  South  America,  and  Health 
Africa,  nevertheless  five  sixths  of  the  unevangel- 
ized  people  upon  the  earth  live  in  tropical  or 
semi-tropical  climates.  Moreover,  we  must  bear 
in  mind  that  medical  facilities  are  far  less  in 
any  mission  field  than  at  home.  We  have  first- 
class  physicians  on  the  mission  fields,  and  we 
have  a  far  larger  proportion  of  hospitals  to  the 
members  of  the  church  there  than  at  home. 
Nevertheless,  every  one  familiar  with  the  foreign 
field  knows  that  missionaries  must  often  live  re- 
moved from  a  physician,  and  that  they  must 
often  make  journeys  in  which  it  is  impossible  for 
them  to  see  a  physician  for  weeks ;  and  that  the 
hospital  facilities  in  foreign  lands  are  far  less 
complete  than  in  the  home  land.  Moreover,  ex- 
posure to  almost  all  types  of  disease  is  inevitable 
in  foreign  lands  in  mission  work.  Bearing  in 
mind  these  facts,  all  candidates  for  the  mission 
field  should  be  persons  of  good  health,  of  unusual 
promise  of  physical  life,  and  willing  to  face  these 
dangers  of  physical  disease  which  inhere  in 
missionary  activity. 

Third,  one  should  have  such  scholarship  and   scholarship 

,-..-.  .-,  ,  ,      «  .  and  Mental 

mental  disciplme  as  will  enable  him  to  master  a   strength 


94  God's  Missionary  Plan 

foreign  language,  and  such    general  scholarship 
as  enables  him  to  distinguish  between  the  essen- 
tials and  non-essentials  in  Christianity  as  com- 
pared with  other  religions. 
The  Mission-       Fourth,  the  missionary  should  be  companion- 
compan-        able  and  capable  in  the  college  phrase  of  "team 
ionabie  work/'     The  Smaller  number  of  workers  in  the 

foreign  field  necessitates  much  closer  union  and 
much  fuller  cooperation  than  does  the  work  in 
the  home  field.  It  frequently  happens  that  un- 
married women  engaged  in  foreign  work  must 
live  in  the  same  house  in  relations  as  close  as 
those  of  sisters ;  and  on  account  of  the  frequent 
changes  of  workers  necessary  in  foreign  fields 
one  must  not  simply  be  capable  of  friendship 
with  some  congenial  spirit,  but  possess  the  com- 
panionable quality. 
Sympathetic  p'ifth,  the  missionary  must  be  a  person  of 
Attractive  large  Sympathies.  He  must  not  be  provincial 
in  his  likes  and  dislikes,  with  race  antipathies, 
but  catholic  in  his  appreciation  of  all  men. 
Some  really  pious  people  cannot  abide  the 
black  man  or  the  yellow  man;  they  assume 
an  autocratic  attitude  toward  other  races;  and 
the  people  to  whom  they  are  sent  to  minister  feel 
repelled  from  them,  though  often  unable  to  ex- 
plain the  reason.  The  missionary  should  be  a 
man  of  attractive  personality,  and  should  not 
only  love  the  people  to  whom  he  goes  but  be  able 


Divine  Method  of  Securing  Workers      95 


to  compel  in  return  their  love  for  himself  as  well 
as  for  his  Master. 

Sixth,  the  missionary  must  possess  an  invincible  optimistic 

.      .  ,  ,      ^    .  .     .       ^     ,     .        ,         and  Full  of 

optimism,  an  unconquerable  faith  in  God,  in  the  Faith 
divine  promises,  and  in  the  divine  providence. 
He  must  have  an  enthusiasm  for  humanity  and  a 
belief  in  the  possibilities  for  good  of  the  people 
to  whom  he  ministers.  Again  and  again  his 
faith  will  be  tried;  people  will  disappoint  him 
and  the  work  will  become  discouraging  and  he 
will  grow  homesick.  Unless  he  is  a  man  of  in- 
domitable faith,  he  ought  not  to  be  sent  to  a 
foreign  land  by  the  church  and  left  to  struggle 
alone  on  that  far-flung  battle  line  for  the  ad- 
vancement of  the  kingdom. 

Seventh,  with  a  charity  that  hopeth  all  things.  Abounding  in 
believeth  all  things,  endureth  all  things,  there  sln^°^ 
must  be  combined  an  uncommon  amount  of  com- 
mon sense,  a  knowledge  of  human  nature,  and  a 
sound,  practical  judgment;  otherwise  a  man's 
enthusiasm  will  make  him  a  very  unsafe  director 
of  great  and  far-reaching  enterprises. 

Eighth,  along  with  these  other  qualifications, 
the  missionary  needs  the  gift  of  leadership.  He 
must  have  the  power  to  inspire  men  of  a  foreign 
tongue  and  of  an  alien  race  to  follow  him  and 
ability  to  make  the  Christian  faith  self-propa- 
gating in  a  foreign  soil.  He  needs  the  power  of 
initiative,  the  imaginative  faculty,  which  on  its 


Having  Gifts 
of  Leadership 


the  Field 


Soldier 
Spirit 


96  God's  Missionary  Plan 

religious  side  is  faith  in  the  sense  of  vision;  for 
he  must  be  a  creator  of  institutions,  the  molder 
of  a  new  civilization. 

Difficulties  of  Along  with  thcsc  practical  considerations,  it 
may  be  well  to  add  also  some  of  the  difficulties 
of  the  foreign  field : 

Need  of  the  Ninth,  the  candidate  for  missionary  work  must 
have  much  of  the  soldier  spirit  in  him.  He  must 
live  far  away  from  his  native  land.  He  is  sepa- 
rated from  the  friends  and  the  influences  of  his 
childhood.  He  must  consent  to  separation  for 
longer  or  shorter  periods  from  his  family,  for  in 
most  cases  physical  and  moral  reasons  demand 
sending  the  children  to  a  temperate  climate  and 
to  a  Christian  environment  for  their  education; 
and  their  departure  from  the  foreign  field  fre- 
quently must  take  place  at  so  early  an  age  that 
the  mother  is  compelled  to  accompany  them. 
Absence  of  Tenth,  the  missionary  is  isolated  from  the  in- 
fluences which  often  seem  essential  to  intellectual 
growth.  There  is  an  absence  of  competition  in 
the  pulpit;  there  is  frequently  the  absence  of 
men  of  culture  and  congenial  intellectual  tastes 
and  spirit  which  contributes  so  much  mental 
stimulus  to  one's  own  growth.  The  daily,  weekly, 
and  all  current  literature  reaches  him  at  so 
late  a  date  as  to  lose  much  of  its  interest.  He 
cannot  visit  book  stores  and  libraries  and  examine 
a  hundred  volumes  from  which  he  may  select 


Intellectual 
Stimulus 


Divine  Method  of  Securing  Workers      97 


some  to  stimulate  his  mental  life.  It  is  a  condi- 
tion of  intellectual  as  well  as  of  family  loneli- 
ness. 

From  the  considerations  named  above  we 
reach  the  conclusion  that  the  call  to  evangelize 
the  nations  must  be  taken  as  a  collective  and 
not  as  an  individual  command.  But  if  the  call 
to  evangelize  the  race  is  a  collective  duty,  then 
each  member  of  the  kingdom  has  a  part  in  it 
assigned  him  by  God :  whether  going  to  the  field, 
or  praying,  giving,  and  training  others  to  go; 
and  all  of  us,  at  home  and  abroad,  are  equally 
responsible  for  the  task.  This  is  the  truth  which 
underlies  Mr.  Speer's  contention.  Every  Chris- 
tian is  responsible  for  his  share  in  the  evangeliza- 
tion of  the  race. 

Turning  now  to  the  encouragements  to  mis- 
sion work,  the  very  harshness  of  the  conditions 
secures  a  select  body  of  men  and  women.  If 
the  prophetic  class  is  to  a  considerable  extent 
the  salt  which  saves  the  nations,  the  missionaries 
are  the  prophets  of  the  prophetic  class,  the  min- 
isters of  the  ministry.  Few  persons  accept  this 
call  unless  they  have  a  passion  for  service;  and 
this  very  passion  for  service,  this  obedience  to 
the  divine  summons,  puts  missionaries  as  a  class 
in  unusual  touch  with  God,  a  touch,  however, 
by  no  means  impossible  to  those  at  home.  The 
very   absence   of   social   distractions,   the   very 


Each 

Member 

Responsible 


Encourage- 
ments to  Mis- 
sion Work 


98  God's  Missionary  Plan 

absence  of  intellectual  distractions  in  the  way 
of  the  daily  papers,  large  and  well-stocked  book- 
stores and  crowded  libraries,  the  very  lack  of 
external  opportunities  and  stimuli  to  diversions, 
makes  the  missionary  a  thinker  rather  than  a 
reader.  The  deep  and  appalling  needs  which 
everywhere  surround  him  drive  him  to  God  and 
make  him  an  intellectual  creator  rather  than  a 
receiver  of  other  men's  thoughts.  Hence  our 
missionaries  as  a  class,  while  deprived  of  the 
intellectual  stimulus  of  the  home  life,  nevertheless 
Mental  Pro-  often  perhaps  are  the  most  intellectually  pro- 
sti^uiater  ductivc  class  in  the  Christian  church.  One  of 
the  most  brilliant  and  spiritually  helpful  writers 
in  the  home  church  said  to  me  recently:  "I  fear 
that  we  must  look  to  the  mission  fields  for  the 
production  of  our  theology  and  of  our  philoso- 
phy." He  added,  that  there  is  a  breadth  of  view 
coming  from  the  contact  with  civilizations  and 
religions,  an  opportunity  for  meditation  so  essen- 
tial to  creative  literature,  an  appeal  to  the  crea- 
tive faculty  by  the  appalling  needs  of  non-Chris- 
tian peoples,  and  above  all,  a  closeness  of  walk 
with  God  which  in  his  judgment  form  the  con- 
ditions for  the  production  of  the  Christian  litera- 
ture of  the  future.  Putting  the  matter  in  another 
form,  he  said  that  if  Christian  literature  is  only 
the  record  of  spiritual  life  and  experience,  he 
believed  that  the  record  in  foreign  fields  would 


Divine  Method  of  Securing  Workers 


99 


eventually  surpass  that  in  the  home  fields,  be- 
cause spiritual  life,  not  necessarily  but  almost 
inevitably,  is  richer,  fuller,  and  more  varied  there. 

On  the  positive  side  also  is  another  important 
consideration.  The  missionary  must  necessarily 
be  a  leader  of  men,  of  communities,  of  churches, 
and  in  some  measure,  of  nations.  No  one  at  all 
familiar  either  with  the  lack  of  home  resources 
or  the  opportunities  in  the  foreign  field  dreams 
that  the  missionaries  can  ever  evangelize,  much 
less  Christianize,  any  foreign  field.  The  whole 
stress  of  missionary  effort  is  put  upon  the  de- 
velopment of  self-propagation  and  of  self-sup- 
port in  foreign  lands.  To  supply  the  empire 
of  China  alone  with  the  number  of  missionaries 
that  there  are  ministers  in  the  home  land — not 
to  mention  physicians  and  teachers — would  re- 
quire more  than  eight  hundred  thousand  men. 
All  Protestantism  has  in  China,  including  preach- 
ers, physicians,  and  teachers,  and  the  wives  of 
the  missionaries,  3,241  workers;  the  missionary 
must  be  a  leader,  a  creator  in  the  foreign  field. 

The  opportunity  for  leadership  is  vastly 
greater  than  in  the  home  land.  Men  who  in  the 
home  land  would  hardly  venture  to  publish  a 
sermon  are  translating  the  Bible  and  thus  mold- 
ing the  religious  thought  and  fixing  the  language 
of  provinces  and  empires  for  centuries.  They 
are  creating  a  literature  and  writing  the  theolo- 


The  Mission- 
ary a  Leader 
and  Creator 


Vast  Possibil- 
ities of 
Influence 


loo  God's  Missionary  Plan 

gies  and  thus  molding  the  intellectual  and  spir- 
itual life  of  millions  of  people.  They  are  laying 
the  foundations  of  the  educational  systems  of 
countries,  and  leading  in  the  introduction  of 
Western  medical  and  other  sciences.  There  are 
a  large  number  of  men  in  China,  as  in  other 
countries,  who  are  doing  the  so-called  work  of 
evangelists.  But  these  men  are  locating  churches, 
determining  what  cities  shall  be  opened  up,  se- 
lecting the  sites  for  buildings,  setting  the  style 
of  preaching,  determining  the  type  of  Christian 
experience,  and  shaping  the  polity  of  the  church 
in  foreign  empires  much  as  Asbury  set  the  type 
of  American  Methodism.  There  are  possibili- 
ties of  influence  for  young  men  in  foreign  fields 
which  are  larger  than  the  possibilities  of  useful- 
ness of  the  presiding  elders  in  the  metropolitan 
districts  in  America.  Indeed  while  they  do  not 
exercise  authority  over  so  large  a  territory  as 
that  which  Asbury  traveled,  they  are  the  chief 
spiritual  representatives  of  Christianity  for 
vastly  larger  populations  than  Asbury  ever 
reached. 
Partnership  Jn  vicw  of  the  high  requirements  for  the  for- 
eign field,  of  its  hard  conditions,  and  of  its  splen- 
did possibilities,  what  decision  shall  young  people 
reach?  We  have  already  given  our  solution  of 
the  problem  in  the  statement  that  each  person 
ought  to  enter  into  partnership  with  Christ,  be 


Divine  Method  of  Securing  Workers     loi 


willing  either  to  go  to  the  foreign  field  or  to  stay 
at  home  as  soon  as  he  learns  the  divine  plan  for 
him. 

But  how  is  one  to  learn  the  divine  call?  If  I 
could  begin  with  the  children,  I  should  say,  first 
teach  the  child  to  offer  himself  in  perfect  conse- 
cration to  God.  By  the  help  of  God,  even  the 
boys  and  girls  may  maintain  their  union  with 
Christ  and  live  in  the  dispensation  of  the  Spirit. 
With  this  fundamental  condition  maintained  one 
cannot  make  any  serious  mistake  in  regard  to 
his  external  work.  Character  is  higher  than 
achievement ;  being  Christlike  is  even  better  than 
doing  the  external  work  which  Christ  would  have 
us  perform. 

Second,  secure  the  best  preparation  it  is  pos- 
sible to  secure,  not  shirking  years  of  hard  study 
and  self-denial,  to  fit  yourself  for  your  tasks. 
Moses,  Isaiah,  Paul,  Luther,  and  Wesley  were 
among  the  best-trained  men  in  the  world's  his- 
tory. Jesus  was  thirty  years  in  growth  and  prepa- 
ration, and  had  only  three  years  to  do  the  work 
his  Father  gave  to  him.  So  tarry  at  your  physi- 
cal and  mental  and  spiritual  Jerusalem  until  you 
are  endued  with  power  from  on  high. 

Third,  having  maintained  your  consecration 
and  secured  your  preparation,  say  unto  God  and 
to  the  church,  "Here  am  I,  send  me."  Do  not 
think  of  yourself  more  highly  than  you  ought  to 


Character 
First 


Full 
Preparation 


Active 
Service 


102  God's  Missionary  Plan 

think;  "Fools  rush  in  where  angels  fear  to 
tread."  On  the  other  hand,  do  not  shirk  duty 
through  false  humility.  In  fact,  you  are  too  close 
to  yourself  to  determine  what  you  can  or  cannot 
do.  Above  all,  do  not  try  to  dodge  responsibili- 
ties; in  essence  they  are  equally  great  at  home 
or  abroad.  Go  into  business,  teaching,  medicine ; 
go  to  South  America,  to  India,  China,  to  Africa 
as  the  intimations  of  the  Spirit,  as  your  own 
incipient  experiences  of  various  types  of  work, 
as  the  advice  of  your  most  consecrated  and  level- 
headed friends,  as  the  openings  of  divine  Provi- 
dence, and  the  call  of  duty  dictate.  "Go  in  any- 
where !  There  is  good  fighting  all  along  the  line." 
Unselfish  Qne  further  word  in  regard  to  the  foreign 
One's  work.     If  you  feel  called  of  God  to  engage  in 

Life-work  special  scrvicc  like  the  ministry,  the  question 
with  reference  to  your  field  is,  Where  can  I  make 
my  life  count  most  for  the  Master?  This  is  not 
a  selfish  or  an  ambitious  question.  The  candi- 
dates must  dismiss  all  plans  of  selfish  ease  or 
personal  ambition.  The  question  is  not  where 
life  will  count  most  for  self  but  where  it  will 
count  most  for  the  Master.  At  this  point,  I  do 
not  think  one  ought  to  wait  for  a  special  impera- 
tive divine  call.  John  Wesley  opposed  some 
very  earnest  Christians  who  maintained  that 
they  must  wait  for  a  divine  impulse  before  offer- 
ing prayer  or  speaking  in  meeting  or  going  on 


Divine  Method  of  Securing  Workers     103 

errands  of  love;  he  denounced  as  enthusiasts 
those  who  would  not  engage  in  works  of  mercy 
or  charity  unless  their  hearts  felt  free  to  it.  So 
in  deciding  between  the  home  and  foreign  field, 
the  candidate  must  be  guided  by  the  same  com- 
mon sense,  the  same  comparative  knowledge  of 
the  fields,  the  judgment  of  others,  the  providen- 
tial openings,  the  inward  impressions  of  the  will 
of  God  which  would  guide  him  in  determining 
whether  he  would  preach  in  Maine  or  California, 
in  Minnesota  or  Mississippi. 

We  appreciate  greatly  the  sincere  humility  of 
those  young  people  who  feel  that  the  responsibili-  God 
ties  of  the  foreign  work  are  beyond  their  abili- 
ties to  meet.  Three  considerations  may  lead 
the  humble  in  spirit  to  engage  in  this  high  and 
difficult  work.  First,  the  intellectual,  moral,  and 
spiritual  qualifications  required  for  the  foreign 
work  are  required  largely  for  the  home  work 
also.  Second,  it  is  impossible  to  foretell  what 
the  grace  of  God  may  accomplish  in  a  human 
soul;  the  promises  of  God  have  never  yet  been 
exhausted  by  any  Christian  worker.  There  is  an 
immense  amount  of  latent  talent  in  so-called  or- 
dinary human  nature,  as  was  revealed  in  the 
case  of  the  disciples  whom  Jesus  called  in  person 
and  as  has  been  revealed  by  thousands  whom 
he  has  later  called  through  the  Spirit.  Great 
needs  develop  great  leaders,  as  in  our  Revolution 


Readiness  to 
be  Used  of 


104  God's  Missionary  Plan 

and  our  Civil  War.  Third,  the  very  fact  that  few 
Christians  can  enter  the  foreign  field  puts  all  the 
more  obligation  on  each  of  us  to  maintain  his 
generic  resolution  and  say:  "Here  am  I,  Lord, 
send  me."  This  will  lead  you  to  the  self-sacri- 
fice involved  in  the  oifer  of  yourself  for  the  work. 
If  you  are  accepted,  well;  if  not,  still  well;  you 
have  become  a  missionary  in  spirit  and  you  will 
receive  the  missionary's  reward. 
Fields'^  In  regard  to  the  field  which  one  should  enter, 
here  again  he  should  consult  the  varying  needs 
of  each  and  the  providential  openings.  In 
Europe,  we  need  men  and  women  abreast  of 
European  culture.  Here  our  work  is  among  the 
most  advanced  peoples.  Indeed  we  send  only 
a  few  leaders  to  European  lands,  and  depend 
upon  the  European  Methodist  churches  to  supply 
the  great  majority  of  our  ministers.  France  in 
the  crisis  through  which  she  is  passing  offers  the 
best  opening  for  Protestantism  today  which  she 
has  offered  since  the  Reformation.  Russia  in  her 
period  of  storm  and  stress  appeals  to  the  brainiest 
and  most  heroic  persons,  and  if  she  adopts  a  con- 
stitution, a  period  of  unprecedented  progress  is 
before  her.  In  Japan,  the  preliminary  work  has 
been  done  and  the  Japanese  have  entered  upon 
a  material  civilization  in  many  respects  equal 
to  that  of  Europe  and  America.  Japan  will  lead 
the  Orient,  and  men  and  women  of  culture  and 


Divine  Method  of  Securing  Workers     105 

capacity  to  be  the  leaders  of  the  leaders  of  the 
Orient  are  needed  for  this  field.  China  is  today 
where  Japan  was  twenty  years  ago.  But  her 
people  are  a  people  with  three  thousand  years  of 
civilization  behind  them,  with  the  pride  which 
comes  naturally  from  a  long  history  and  a  long 
ancestry,  and  with  natural  abilities  unsurpassed 
by  those  of  any  other  people  on  earth.  Moreover,  Remarkable 
no  empire  of  equal  population  ever  awakened  so  Devrilpment 
rapidly  as  China  is  awakening  today.  Japan  is 
thoroughly  awake  and  she  is  advancing  rapidly ; 
while  work  in  India  is  twenty  years  in  advance 
of  China.  China  is  just  now  turning  a  corner 
in  human  history.  Here,  again,  strong,  cul- 
tured, capable  leaders  are  needed.  In  Korea, 
the  people  are  turning  to  Christ  more  rapidly 
than  the  people  of  any  other  nation.  They  v 
are  alarmed  and  depressed  by  their  fear  of 
Japanese  supremacy.  They  need  foreign  lead- 
ers who  can  sympathize  with  them  and  guide 
them,  and  upon  whom  they  can  rely  in  this  crisis. 
In  South  America,  a  great  continent  is  awaken- 
ing. We  have  work  in  nine  nations.  But  the 
work  is  in  its  incipient  stages.  The  nations  are 
at  the  threshold  of  large  growth  and  greater  pos- 
sibilities. Here  again  leaders  are  needed,  capable 
of  guiding  a  people  in  reaction  from  a  distorted 
type  of  Christianity  and  of  laying  the  foundations 
of  great  republics.    In  Africa,  we  have  a  conti- 


New  Rac9 


lo6  God's  Missionary  Plan 

nent  just  emerging  into  light.  Here  leaders  are 
needed  who  can  reach  perhaps  the  most  back- 
ward race  on  earth.  They  will  need  to  lay  the 
very  foundations  of  civilization.  The  mission- 
aries also  must  work  in  connection  with  foreign 
countries.  If  they  can  succeed  in  securing  the 
cooperation  and  in  some  measure  directing  the 
efforts  of  these  foreign  leaders,  and  if  at  the  same 
time  they  can  secure  the  confidence  of  the  Afri- 
cans, they  can  raise,  slowly  but  surely,  the  sub- 
To  create  a  merged  race  of  earth;  indeed  they  will  almost 
create  a  new  race.  In  Malaysia,  as  in  Africa, 
we  are  laying  the  foundations  of  civilization  and 
working  with  able  representatives  of  ruling  na- 
tions. In  India,  the  work  is  perhaps  not  quite 
so  far  advanced  as  in  Japan,  but  is  farther  ad- 
vanced than  in  China,  much  farther  than  in 
Korea,  and  vastly  farther  than  in  Africa.  The 
missionaries  must  be  able  to  compare  favorably 
with  the  civil  and  military  representatives  of 
Great  Britain,  and  they  must  in  some  measure 
mediate  between  restless  young  India  and  the 
mother  country.  India  justly  enjoys  the  prestige 
of  the  most  successful  missionary  work  in  Meth- 
odism. In  the  Philippines  the  missionary  has  the 
double  advantage  of  laboring  among  people  who 
are  rapidly  turning  to  Protestant  Christianity 
through  reaction  from  a  distorted  faith,  and 
who  at  the  same  time  are  under  the  control  of 


The  Crowded 
Home  Field 


Divine  Method  of  Securing  Workers     107 

our  own  government.     But  the  missionary  must  . 
contend  against  the  same  vices  of  drunkenness, 
lust,  and  greed  in  trade  which  assail  us  in  our 
great  cities  at  home. 

We  have  completed  the  discussion  of  the  prin-   ^wo  Facts  to 
ciples  which  should  guide  one  in  offering  him- 
self to  the  foreign  work.     It  would  be  unfair, 
however,   to  close  this   chapter  without  calling 
the  attention  of  young  people  to  two  facts. 

I.  It  is  a  condition  and  not  a  theory  which 
confronts  us.  In  holding  several  Conferences  in 
the  United  States  and  appointing  nearly  a  thou- 
sand men  to  their  work,  I  have  been  made  pain- 
fully aware,  as  is  every  bishop  in  Methodism, 
of  the  need  of  more  men  to  supply  the  small 
churches  paying  from  five  to  seven  hundred  dol- 
lars per  year.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  we  could 
supply  most  of  this  need  from  the  men  who  are 
in  the  ministry  if  we  were  to  utilize  those  on  the 
superannuate  and  supernumerary  list  and  those 
holding  nominal  appointments.  But  while  there 
is  some  scarcity  of  men  for  the  small  appoint- 
ments, there  is  a  fearful  pressure  for  appoint- 
ments ranging  from  eight  hundred  dollars 
upward.  In  every  large  Conference,  also,  the 
presiding  elders  and  the  bishop  are  painfully 
conscious  of  the  fact  that  they  have  a  large  num- 
ber of  men  worthy  of  promotion  and  capable 
of  larger  work  and  larger  responsibilities,  but 


io8  God's  Missionary  Plan 

who  cannot  be  advanced  to  their  proper  positions 
without  crowding  other  worthy  men  out  of  the 
positions  which  they  are  now  occupying.  The 
pressure  upon  the  appointing  powers  to  find 
places  for  worthy  men  in  the  better  and  higher 
grade  appointments  is  painful.  As  a  matter  of 
fact,  large  numbers  of  ministers  must  occupy 
lower  positions  than  they  are  fitted  for  until  their 
brethren  in  the  ministry  are  called  home  to 
heaven,  and  death  makes  places  for  them. 
The  Needy  In    othcr    denominations    similar    conditions 

Foreign  Field    ^^^     ^^^^^^        j^^^^     ^^^     ^^^^     ^^     ^^^      ^^^^^^ 

of  the  men  qualified  to  preach  in  some  leading 
denominations  in  the  United  States  today  are 
without  appointments.  It  is  indeed  true  that  in 
these  same  denominations  there  are  many 
churches  without  pastors ;  and  the  laymen  and  es- 
pecially committees  on  pulpit  supply  will  say  that 
no  first-class  men  in  their  denominations  are  with- 
out appointments.  Looked  at  from  one  point  of 
view,  the  statement  is  correct.  The  vast  major- 
ity of  ministers  who  are  capable  of  drawing  large 
audiences,  of  filling  the  treasuries  of  the  church, 
of  increasing  the  membership  rapidly,  of  securing 
large  gifts  for  charities,  are  employed  in  all  of 
our  denominations.  But  may  it  not  be  true  that 
the  very  abundance  of  the  supply  at  home  has 
blinded  the  home  churches  to  the  real  qualifica- 
tions of  the  minister.     If  the  real  qualifications 


Divine  Method  of  Securing  Workers     109 

of  the  prophet  of  God  are  the  abiHty  to  direct  men 
into  paths  of  righteousness  and  the  consecration 
which  will  enable  him  to  lead  seekers  to  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  by  personal  example,  then 
there  are  multitudes  of  ministers  in  the  home 
churches  who  are  either  without  appointments 
or  without  places  equal  to  their  abilities.  In  a 
word,  the  ministry  at  home  impresses  me  as  a 
greatly  over-crowded  profession;  and  if  we  are 
to  wait  for  the  law  of  supply  and  demand  to 
operate  in  order  to  secure  living  salaries,  we 
shall  witness  the  painful  spectacle  of  persons  feel- 
ing called  to  the  Christian  ministry  turning  aside 
to  other  vocations  through  lack  of  proper  sup- 
port inside  the  sacred  calling.  When  one  turns 
from  the  home  to  the  foreign  field,  just  the 
opposite  spectacle  confronts  him.  Here  in  many  white  for  the 
cases  the  fields  are  literally  white  for  the  harvest.  ^^^^^^^ 
We  now  have  cities  offering  to  build  and  equip 
hospitals  if  the  church  at  home  will  only  send 
physicians ;  offering  to  turn  over  their  temples 
for  worship  if  the  church  at  home  will  only 
send  the  ministers;  cities  offering  to  hire  halls 
and  pay  the  rent  and  help  support  the  preacher 
if  we  will  only  send  them  ministers.  There  are 
almost  countless  places  where  the  people  are 
willing  to  contribute  at  least  part  of  the  expense 
toward  maintaining  education  if  people  can  be 
sent  to  teach  them  Christianity  and  the  Western 


no  God's  Missionary  Plan 

science.    We  have  one  minister  at  home  for  every 
544  of  the  population,  and  one  ordained  mission- 
ary in  China  for  every  219,000  persons. 
The  Call  to       2.  We  are  all  familiar  with  the  great  migratory 

the  Youngs  ,  .    ,      ,  ,  1  ,       .  , 

Christians  movcmcnts  whicli  havc  taken  place  during  the 
of  America  ia.st  ccntury  from  Europe  to  the  new  world. 
Most  of  us  rejoice  that  our  more  or  less  distant 
ancestors  had  the  courage  and  the  enterprise 
and  the  heroism  which  prompted  them  to  leave 
old  associations  and  the  influences  of  the  home 
land  that  they  might  find  greater  opportunities 
for  their  energies  and  a  wider  field  for  their 
endeavors  in  the  new  world.  Many  of  us  are 
descendants  of  those  who  crossed  the  Alleghanies 
and  poured  into  the  Mississippi  Valley  from 
the  same  motive.  We  are  the  children  or  the 
descendants  of  emigrants.  The  call  of  distant 
.  .lands  is  in  our  blood.  The  heroism  of  the 
pioneers  and  the  emigrants,  of  the  creators  of 
empires  and  the  founders  of  institutions,  belongs 
to  us.  A  glance  at  history  shows  the  struggles 
of  civilization  passing  from  the  Mediterranean 
Basin  to  the  Atlantic  Basin,  and  now  passing 
from  the  Atlantic  Basin  to  the  Pacific  Basin.  Will 
not  the  same  spirit  of  enterprise,  not  unmixed  with 
heroism,  which  brought  your  ancestors  from  the 
old  world  to  the  new,  from  the  Atlantic  Coast 
to  the  Mississippi  Valley,  call  many  who  read 
these  words  to  become  leaders  in  that  struggle 


Would  Do 


Divine  Method  of  Securing  Workers     iii 

which  will  take  place  in  the  twentieth  century 
to  determine  what  language,  what  civilization, 
what  religion,  shall  become  dominant  in  the  world- 
neighborhood  gathering  around  the  Pacific? 
Were  Paul  facing  the  same  opportunity  today,  what  Paul 
as  are  multitudes  of  young  Christians  in 
America,  where,  in  view  of  the  conditions  which 
confront  us  and  the  spirit  which  he  showed  on 
earth,  do  you  think  he  would  cast  his  lot?  Would 
not  the  same  call  to  the  Gentiles  or  nations  which 
made  him  a  missionary  when  the  Gospel  was 
scarcely  planted  in  Judaea  lead  him  from  the 
United  States  to  help  supply  the  word  of  life 
to  the  regions  of  Asia,  Africa,  and  South  Amer- 
ica, where  multitudes  are  suffering  from  lack  of 
light?  We  may  say  to  parents,  in  closing,  that 
God  had  only  one  Son,  and  that  God  so  loved  the 
world  that  he  gave  Jesus  to  be  a  foreign  mission- 
ary. 


CHAPTER  VII 
The  Divine  Method  of  Securing  Means 
The  The  principle  underlying  this  chapter  is  the 

Finan^d^i^^  samc  as  the  principle  underlying  Chapter  Six. 
Problem  There  is  no  possibility  of  securing  funds  suffi- 
cient to  enable  the  church  to  meet  the  crisis  which 
is  upon  her  save  by  training  the  members  from 
infancy  up  in  the  doctrine  that  every  man's  life 
is  a  plan  of  God,  and  that  it  is  the  privilege  of 
every  Christian  to  enter  into  partnership  with 
God  in  business  and  home  life  just  as  fully  as 
in  the  ministry  and  on  the  mission  field.  When 
the  church  becomes  imbued  with  the  conviction 
that  all  the  redeemed  are  priests,  as  John  teaches 
in  Revelation,  that  God  has  a  plan  for  every 
human  life ;  that  he  is  just  as  ready  to  cooperate 
with  a  mother  in  caring  for  her  children,  with  a 
farmer  in  tilling  his  field,  with  the  merchant  in 
his  business,  and  to  suffer  with  the  sick  ones  in 
their  illness,  as  to  cooperate  with  the  minister  and 
the  missionary,  we  shall  reach  a  higher  type  of 
Christian  living  and  shall  take  God  into  partner- 
ship in  our  daily  lives. 
God's  It  is  simply  impossible,  however,  for  a  busi- 

kTsusiness  ^^^^  "^^^  ^^  take  God  into  partnership  in  his 
business  life  without  sharing  with  God  the  profits 

112 


Divine  Method  of  Securing  Means      113 

of  the  business.  I  do  not  mean  by  this  that  God 
demands  harsh  and  impossible  conditions  in  re- 
gard to  the  gifts  of  the  man  engaged  in  the 
so-called  secular  pursuits;  but  that  he  does  de- 
mand systematic  and  proportional  sharing  of  the 
income  of  the  business  with  himself.  I  do  not 
mean  by  this  either  that  systematic  or  propor- 
tional giving  necessarily  demands  that  the  money 
shall  be  given  to  some  general  collection  of  the 
church  or  to  the  pastor  of  the  church  for  some 
local  church  work.  Jesus  says  in  regard  to  the 
cup  of  cold  water,  "Inasmuch  as  ye  did  it  unto 
one  of  these  my  brethren,  even  these  least,  ye 
did  it  unto  me."  So  also  the  Good  Samaritan  on 
his  way  from  Jerusalem  to  Jericho  was  laboring 
together  with  God  in  relieving  the  wants  of  the 
wounded  man. 

It  is  clear  to  all  that  there  must  be  a  large  increase  of 
increase  in  the  funds  of  the  Home  Mission  and 
Church  Extension  Society  if  we  are  to  take 
America  for  Christ;  that  there  must  be  a  large 
increase  in  the  collections  for  education  if  we  are 
to  capture  the  rising  generation;  that  there 
must  be  a  large  increase  in  foreign  mission  funds 
if  we  are  to  take  the  world  for  Christ;  that  we 
must  more  generously  relieve  the  distress  of  our 
worn-out  ministers  and  must  at  least  enable  our 
pastors  to  educate  their  children  and  keep  out  of 
debt  if  we  are  to  maintain  the  efficiency  of  our 


Resources 


114  God's  Missionary  Plan 

home  churches.    In  a  word,  there  must  be  a  large 
increase  of  resources. 
Systematic       JvJ-q  endurinsf  increase  in  our  resources  can  be 

Giving  ,  .  ,  ...  rr^,  «  , 

secured  without  systematic  giving.  The  church 
can  never  capture  the  world  for  Christ  so  long 
as  our  gifts  rest  upon  spasmodic  emotions  rather 
than  upon  conscience.  Again,  our  giving  must 
be  in  proportion  to  our  income.  The  whole  his- 
tory of  the  Christian  church  does  not  show  a 
single  mission  established  or  a  single  church 
maintained  by  appeals  for  each  member  to  give 
one  dollar.  The  cry  for  an  equal  gift  from  each 
member  of  the  church  at  once  lowers  the  stand- 
ard of  the  wealthiest  members  to  a  pittance ;  and 
forces  upon  the  poor  members  the  conviction 
that  Christ  does  not  demand  of  them  the  same 
amount  as  of  the  richest  member.  It  is  entirely 
proper  to  compare  our  average  contribution  of 
fifty- four  cents  per  member  with  the  average  con- 
tribution of  nearly  one  dollar  per  member  by  the 
members  of  some  other  churches,  and  to  ask  for 
an  average  of  one  dollar  from  Methodists;  this 
has  been  done  by  our  leaders  in  missionary  enter- 
prise and  with  good  results.  But  an  assessment 
of  one  dollar  per  member  is  false  in  principle  and 
disappointing  in  practice.  All  business  men  are 
agreed  that  system  and  proportion  are  as  essen- 
tial to  success  in  church  work  as  in  business  life. 
Hence  all  business  men  are  prepared  to  unite 


Divine  Method  of  Securing  Means      115 

with  the  minister  in  insisting  upon  the  apostoHc 
injunction  of  systematic  and  proportional  giv- 
ing. "Now  concerning  the  collection  for  the 
saints,  as  I  gave  order  to  the  churches  of  Gala- 
tia,  so  also  do  ye.  Upon  the  first  day  of  the 
week  let  each  one  of  you  lay  by  him  in  store,  as 
he  may  prosper."  A  study  of  the  passage  shows 
that  it  is  not  simply  a  suggestion;  that  it  is  a 
general  order,  one  which  Paul  had  given  to  other 
churches  as  well  as  to  the  church  at  Corinth ;  that 
it  enjoins  systematic  giving  at  regular  intervals 
established  in  advance;  that  it  demands  propor- 
tional giving  according  to  the  income  of  each. 
The  two  principles  of  system  and  proportion 
clearly  laid  down  by  the  apostle  Paul  are  essen- 
tial to  success  in  every  business  enterprise;  and 
business  men  recognize  them  as  essential  to  the 
successful  management  of  every  church  enter- 
prise. 

As  I  have  worked  and  prayed  over  this  chapter  ^  Definite 

,  .      .  ,  1  .  Proportion 

the  conviction  has  grown  upon  me  that,  m  not  Essential 
urging  any  proportion  in  giving,  the  church  has 
made  the  same  mistake  that  she  would  have  made 
had  she  not  fixed  upon  one  seventh  of  every 
Christian's  time  for  worship,  but  had  left  every 
member  free  to  set  aside  so  much  or  so  little  of 
his  time  from  business  as  might  seem  good  in  his 
own  eyes.  It  is  plain  to  all  that,  had  not  the  early 
Christians  set  aside  one  day  in  seven  for  the 


Ii6  God's  Missionary  Plan 

service  of  God,  and  resolutely  abstained  from 
their  ordinary  work  on  that  day,  Christianity 
would  never  have  become  one  of  the  great  world 
religions.  It  grows  equally  clear  to  me  that  were 
the  Christians,  along  with  the  devotion  of  one 
seventh  of  their  time  to  the  Lord,  to  set  aside 
also  one  tenth  of  their  income  for  his  service, 
the  world  would  be  speedily  evangelized. 
Analogy  of  Dropping  all  thought  of  one  tenth,  let  us 
Sabbath  plead  simply  for  some  definite  proportion  in 
giving.  Every  argument  which  can  be  used 
against  any  definite  proportion  in  giving,  every 
charge  that  such  a  rule  is  legal  and  mechanical, 
that  it  contradicts  the  whole  spirit  of  the  New 
Testament,  has  been  used  against  the  mainte- 
nance of  the  Lord's  Day.  And,  indeed,  you  can 
find  a  stronger  argument  against  the  mainte- 
nance of  the  Sabbath  on  the  ground  that  it  con- 
tradicts the  free  spirit  of  Christianity,  and  you 
can  cite  stronger  arguments  in  both  the  words 
and  works  of  Christ  for  the  abolition  of  the  Sab- 
bath than  for  the  abolition  of  tithing.  In  the 
case  of  the  Lord's  Day  you  ask  every  Chris- 
tian, no  matter  how  poor  he  is,  no  matter 
how  large  his  family,  to  abstain  from  his  ordi- 
nary employment  one  day  in  seven  and  devote 
the  time  to  the  worship  and  service  of  God. 
The  demand  for  the  same  amount  of  time  from 
every  Christian,  whatever  his  condition,  is  more 


Divine  Method  of  Securing  Means      117 

mechanical  and  legal  than  the  demand  for  a 
proportion  of  his  earnings.  In  time  the  poor 
man  sets  aside  the  same  amount  as  the  rich  man. 
Proportional  giving  may  not  take  one  fiftieth  as 
much  money  from  the  poor  man  as  from  the  rich 
man.  But  every  man  recognizes  that  the  ob- 
servance of  the  Lord's  Day,  with  proper  excep- 
tions for  the  works  of  mercy  and  necessity,  and 
the  whole  of  it  observed  in  accordance  with  the 
Master's  injunction  that  the  Sabbath  was  made 
for  man,  not  man  for  the  Sabbath — every  man  Gains  to 
recognizes  that  the  Lord's  Day  so  observed  has  ^^^^^^^^^'^ 
brought  infinite  gains  to  our  civilization.  Who 
doubts  that  an  equally  universal  observance  of 
proportional  giving,  not  in  a  mechanical  or  legal 
manner,  not  with  the  conception  that  one  tenth 
or  any  proportion  discharges  our  obligation  to 
God,  but  as  a  recognition  that  we  have  been  re- 
deemed by  the  lifeblood  of  Jesus,  and  that  all 
we  have  and  are  belongs  to  him — who  doubts 
that  such  proportional  giving  would  prove  an 
infinite  gain  to  the  church  and  to  the  civilization 
of  the  twentieth  century?  Let  us  at  least  resolve 
that  we  will  ourselves  begin  at  once,  and  that 
we  will  lead  every  member  of  the  church  over 
whom  we  have  sufficient  influence  to  systematic 
giving  of  some  proportion  of  his  income  for  the 
service  of  the  Lord. 
What  ought  this  proportion  to  be  ?  How  much 


ii8 


God's  Missionary  Plan 


Not  Less  than 
One  Tenth 


Tithing 
Sanctioned 
in  the  Old 
Testament 


of  his  income  ought  the  church  to  ask  every 
member  to  set  aside  for  all  religious  and  benevo- 
lent causes  ?  As  already  written  I  would  not  wish 
to  lay  down  a  hard  and  fast  mechanical  rule 
which  does  violence  to  the  spirit  of  the  Master. 
Certainly  the  same  liberal  exceptions  on  the 
ground  of  mercy  and  necessity  should  be  made  as 
obtain  in  the  observance  of  the  Lord's  Day. 
With  such  liberal  exceptions  according  to  the 
spirit  of  the  Master,  I  believe  that  the  gifts 
under  the  new  dispensation  of  the  followers  of 
him  who  gave  the  last  full  measure  of  his  life 
for  us  ought  not  to  fall  below  the  gifts  under 
the  old  dispensation — that  the  Christian  should 
not  be  stingier  than  the  Jew. 

A  careful  reading  of  Lev.  xxvii,  30-32;  Deut. 
xii,  5-1 1,  28,  and  xiv,  22-29,  will  convince  any 
person  that  tithing  has  the  sanction  of  the  Old 
Testament:  "And  all  the  tithe  of  the  land, 
whether  of  the  seed  of  the  land,  or  of  the  fruit 
of  the  tree,  is  Jehovah's."  "Ye  shall  not  do 
after  all  the  things  that  we  do  here  this  day,  every 
man  whatsoever  is  right  in  his  own  eyes."  What 
an  exact  description  of  our  present  method! 
"But  when  ye  go  over  the  Jordan,  and  dwell  in 
the  land  which  Jehovah  your  God  causeth  you  to 
inherit  .  .  .  thither  shall  ye  bring  all  that  I  com- 
mand you,  your  burnt-offerings,  and  your  sacri- 
fices, your  tithes.  ,  .  .  Observe  and  hear  all  these 


Divine  Method  of  Securing  Means      119 

words  which  I  command  thee,  that  it  may  go 
well  with  thee,  and  with  thy  children  after  thee 
for  ever."  "Thou  shalt  surely  tithe  all  the  in- 
crease of  thy  seed,  .  .  .and  the  firstlings  of  thy 
herd  and  of  thy  flock ;  that  thou  mayest  learn  to 
fear  Jehovah  thy  God  always.  .  .  .  Thou  shalt 
bring  forth  all  the  tithe  of  thine  increase ;  .  .  . 
and  the  Levite,  because  he  hath  no  portion  nor 
inheritance  with  thee,  and  the  sojourner,  and  the 
fatherless,  and  the  widow,  which  are  within  thy 
gates,  shall  come,  and  shall  eat  and  be  satisfied ; 
that  Jehovah  thy  God  may  bless  thee  in  all  the 
work  of  thine  hand  which  thou  doest."  From 
such  passages  as  the  above  it  seems  clear  that 
the  Old  Testament  indorses  the  principle  of 
setting  aside  one  tenth  for  the  specific  support 
of  the  church,  and  that  the  fatherless  and  the 
widows  probably  were  exempt  because  they  are 
mentioned  as  recipients  of  the  tithe,  and  that 
additional  gifts  according  to  the  means  and 
spirit  of  the  worshiper  were  provided  for  in  the 
"offerings  and  sacrifices"  mentioned  in  addition 
to  the  tithes. 

The  Jewish  priests  carried  the  exactions  of  the  ^"  Principle 

^  ,        Approved  by 

tithe  so  far  as  to  include  mint,  anise,  and  cummm  Christ 
— mere   condiments  of  food  like  our  salt  and 
pepper.      They   insisted   upon   their   tithes,   and 
neglected   the   weightier   matters   of  judgment, 
mercy,  and  faith.     Jesus,  as  the  real  leader  of 


I20  God's  Missionary  Plan 

all  reforms,  laid  emphasis,  of  course,  upon  great 
principles,  like  law,  justice,  and  mercy — ''These 
ought  ye  to  have  done."  But,  like  many  re- 
formers, Jesus  never  was  careless  as  to  details. 
He  knew  that  the  mastery  of  great  principles 
manifests  itself  in  faithfulness  in  little  things. 
Hence  he  adds,  in  regard  to  the  application 
of  the  tithe  to  the  mere  condiments  of  the 
table,  "And  not  to  leave  the  other  undone." 
It  is  difficult  to  find  a  stronger  approval  of  the 
principle  of  tithing  than  these  words  afford.  We 
are  sure  that  we  speak  after  both  the  letter  and 
the  spirit  of  the  New  Testament  in  urging  sys- 
tematic and  proportional  giving.  We  believe 
that  we  speak  after  the  mind  of  Christ  in  sug- 
gesting that  the  Christian  should  set  aside  for  the 
service  of  God  and  man  not  less  than  one  tenth 
of  his  income. 
Plea  for  the  A  scHous  objcctiou  is  presented  in  the  name 
Subterfuge  o^  the  poor.  I  havc  been  asked  many  times 
whether  I  think  it  Christlike  to  demand  that 
a  poor  man  with  a  family  of  ten  children 
and  an  income  of  six  hundred  dollars  a  year 
ought  to  give  as  much  as  a  single  man  with  an 
equal  income  and  no  relatives  depending  upon 
him.  The  answer  is  fourfold:  (i)  The  law  of 
necessity  upon  the  part  of  the  poor  man  and  of 
mercy  upon  the  part  of  the  church  may  well 
absolve  some  persons  from  making  any  immedi- 


Divine  Method  of  Securino^  Means      121 


t3 


ate  returns  to  the  church.  (2)  If  the  poor  give 
ten  per  cent,  or  even  two  per  cent,  many  a  rich 
man  is  called  to  give  more  than  ten  per  cent.  (3) 
"The  submerged  tenth"  in  any  church  never  re- 
mains submerged.  It  usually  rises  into  the  com- 
fortable and  often  into  the  wealthier  class  as  the 
years  go  by ;  and  the  church  can  well  afford  and 
is  willing  to  wait  for  the  poorest  to  escape  from 
their  distress  before  urging  them  to  give  to  any 
considerable  extent.  (4)  I  have  never  known 
the  real  difficulty  to  be  presented  by  a  poor 
family  in  any  concrete  case  in  the  history  of 
tithing.  The  poor  are  not  the  people  who  rebel 
against  tithing,  when  tithing  is  presented  with 
the  freedom  of  Christ,  and  in  his  spirit.  It  is 
the  rich  and  the  comfortable  who  refuse  in  the 
name  of  the  poor  to  give  a  tenth  or  any  other 
proportion  of  their  income  systematically. 

We  do  not  deem  it  wise  to  insist  that  every  An  Aggregate 
member  of  the  church  should  give  exactly  one 
tenth  of  his  net  income.  The  aggregate  of  all 
our  gifts  ought  to  reach  one  tenth  of  the  income 
of  the  church  members.  But  there  are  some 
who  surely  ought  to  give  more  than  one  tenth 
of  their  incomes,  while  those  in  sickness  and 
poverty  and  distress  should  no  more  be  forced 
to  meet  an  assessment  by  the  stewards  than  the 
wounded  man  lying  by  the  Jericho  wayside.  We 
must  not   import   legalistic  principles   into   the 


122  God's  Missionary  Plan 

New  Testament.  "The  letter  killeth  but  the 
spirit  giveth  life."  On  the  other  hand,  we  are 
equally  sure  that  each  Christian  should  aim  to 
set  aside  some  fixed  proportion  of  his  net  in- 
come for  the  Master's  work.  Opposition  to 
system  and  proportion  is  unbusinesslike  anti- 
nomianism.  We  may  be  sure  also  that  the  ag- 
gregate of  our  gifts  as  a  church  ought  not  to 
fall  below  the  Old  Testament  standard.  If  you 
fix  a  higher  proportion  for  yourself,  you  can 
feel  a  satisfaction  in  helping  to  supply  some 
less  favored  brother's  deficiency.  If  you  fix  less 
than  this  proportion  for  yourself,  you  put  your- 
self upon  the  list  of  those  unable  or  unwilling 
to  meet  a  fair  proportion  of  the  responsibilities 
and  burdens  which  the  Christian  Church  must 
assume  if  the  world  is  to  be  redeemed. 
Value  of  Just  hcrc  wc  are  met  by  the  suggestion  that  an 

incomT^"'"^  Old  Testament  system  of  tithing  is  not  adapted 
to  our  modern  and  complex  age;  that  it  is  very 
difficult  for  many  men  to  determine  what  is  their 
income  after  paying  the  legitimate  expenses 
necessary  to  obtain  their  income;  where  the  line 
is  to  be  drawn  between  the  relations  who  have  a 
legitimate — almost  a  legal — claim  upon  therr^, 
and  humanity  in  general.  A  moment's  thought 
will  suffice  to  show  that  this  objection  is  not 
against  tithing,  but  against  all  proportional  giv- 
ing; that  it  is  a  plea  for  the  old  lack  of  system 


Divine  Method  of  Securing  Means      123 


A  Tenth  is 
Practicable 


which  has  left  the  church  with  an  empty  treasury 
in  face  of  the  greatest  opportunity  of  the  ages — 
a  plea  for  the  lack  of  system  which  has  been  one 
of  the  most  fruitful  sources  of  failure  in  the 
business  world.  However  much  effort  may  be 
required  to  ascertain  the  facts,  the  exact  knowl- 
edge of  one's  income  and  expenditure  and  of  his 
financial  condition  is  one  of  the  deepest  needs  of 
a  Christian,  not  only  on  religious,  but  on  financial 
grounds. 

I  believe  that  the  struggle  to  bring  our  church 
up  to  giving  some  proportion  of  its  wealth  sys- 
tematically, even  to  the  extent  of  one  tenth  or 
more,  is  not  so  difficult,  and  that  the  end  is  not 
so  far  removed  as  our  fears  may  indicate.  The 
income  of  the  members  of  our  church  is  estimated 
at  eight  hundred  millions  a  year.  Mr.  Stephen 
V.  R.  Ford,  editor  of  the  Methodist  Year 
Book,  holds  that  the  total  gifts  of  Methodists 
for  current  expenses,  church  building,  pastoral 
support,  education,  benevolent  purposes,  and  all 
other  causes,  now  reaches  forty  millions  a  year. 

If  each  member  of  our  church  whom  the  pas- 
tor and  official  board  know  to  be  able  to  pay  the 
amount  could  be  brought  to  a  subscription  of  ten  impulse 
per  cent  of  his  income,  those  who  would  go  be- 
yond ten  per  cent  would  bring  the  average  up 
far  beyond  ten  per  cent  of  our  incomes.  Surely 
it  is  not  an  impossible  task  to  lead  the  great  ma- 


Trainlng  and 
System  in 
Place  of 


124  God's  Missionary  Plan 

jority  of  our  members  to  fix  upon  some  propor- 
tion of  their  income  as  a  payment  to  the  Lord 
who  has  redeemed  them,  and  thus  to  bring  our 
church  as  a  whole  to  compliance  with  the  apos- 
tolic injunction  of  systematic  and  proportional 
giving.  If  during  the  next  five  years  we  can 
bring  the  majority  of  God's  children  who  know 
Christ  as  a  Saviour  and  Lord  to  a  regular  offering 
of  substantially  ten  per  cent  of  their  incomes, 
before  the  close  of  this  generation  we  can  give 
every  child  of  God  at  least  the  invitation  to 
come  home.  The  more  I  study  the  New  Testa- 
ment the  more  fully  it  seems  to  me  that  the  divine 
injunction  of  proportional  giving  and  the  New 
Testament  sanction  for  setting  aside  not  less 
than  one  tenth  of  our  income  for  the  service  of 
God  and  humanity  is  as  strong  as  is  the  divine 
injunction  to  set  aside  one  seventh  of  our  time 
for  the  same  purpose.  In  a  word,  the  loose 
V  theory  of  grace,  that  spirit  of  antinomianism 
which  has  infected  Protestant  Christianity  and 
led  us  to  magnify  emotional  states  and  neglect 
Consecrating  the  consccration  of  the  will,  accounts  for  the 
present  crisis  in  missions.  We  have  treated  giv- 
ing so  fully  as  a  matter  of  impulse  rather  than 
of  duty  that  Christians  generally  repudiate  the 
claims  of  God  and  the  church  upon  any  fixed  per 
cent  of  their  income.  Our  giving  is  not  system- 
atic and  in  proportion  to  our  receipts,  as  the  prin- 


Divine  Method  of  Securing  Means      125 

ciples  of  our  faith  require,  but  spasmodic  and 
according  to  our  impulses. 

We  cannot  adopt  a  false  principle  in  religion   Results  of  a 

.  ,  ,  .  -   .         t-i-        .  .        Defective 

Without  the  poison  of  it  affecting  our  careers  m  standard 
business.  Accordingly,  our  self-centered  and  un- 
systematic use  of  funds  for  God  runs  in  a  meas- 
ure throughout  our  acquisitions  and  more  fully 
throughout  our  expenditures,  and  thus  weakens 
the  financial  standing  of  millions  of  Christians. 
It  is  said  that  ninety-five  per  cent  of  men  in 
business  fail  at  some  stage  of  their  career.  I 
have  never  succeeded  in  finding  the  data  upon 
which  this  statement  is  based.  I  do  not  believe 
it  to  be  true.  Possibly  ninety-five  per  cent  of 
our  business  men  change  their  business  or  their 
methods  of  business  during  their  lifetime,  thus 
indicating  that  in  their  judgment  there  was  need 
and  opportunity  for  improvement.  If  it  were 
said  that  ninety-five  per  cent  of  business  men  fail 
to  make  an  adequate  success  in  business,  that 
they  fail  to  measure  up  to  their  possibilities, 
everybody  would  accept  the  statement  as  true. 

Financial  failures  are  due  to  carelessness  and  a  cure  for 

,       .  ,  .  ,      .  .  Carelessness 

laziness  or  to  greed  and  speculation  m  money  ^nd 
making,  or  else  to  carelessness  and  extravagance   Extravagance 
in  spending  it.    But  the  adoption  of  system  and 
self-denial  in  the  use  of  money  will  do  much  to 
promote  system  and  devotion  to  daily  duties  in 
making    money.      The    same    conscientiousness 


126  God's  Missionary  Plan 

which  leads  a  young  man  to  set  aside  a  tenth 
of  his  income  for  the  Lord  in  spending  his  money, 
that  same  conscientiousness  will  keep  him  from 
trying  to  make  money  through  speculation  and 
cheating — fruitful  sources  of  financial  failure. 
But  more  Americans  fail  through  carelessness 
and  extravagance  in  spending  money  than 
through  dishonesty  in  making  it.  Their  expendi- 
tures do  not  seem  to  themselves  extravagant; 
but  they  are  out  of  proportion  to  their  income. 
All  business  men  know  that  the  foundations  of 
fortunes  are  laid  not  so  frequently  or  so  fully 
through  large  earnings  as  through  self-denial  in 
Seif-Deniai  Spending  moncy,  through  preserving  a  reason- 
able and  constant  margin  between  income  and 
expenditure.  Now,  tithing  or  any  system  of 
proportional  giving  demands  systematic,  constant 
self-denial.  It  is  an  almost  unfailing  cure  of 
extravagant  or  disproportionate  expenditure. 
The  young  man  who  conscientiously  sets  aside 
for  some  good  cause  one  tenth  of  his  earnings 
will  conscientiously  use  the  remaining  nine 
tenths ;  and  nine  tenths  conscientiously  used  will 
contribute  vastly  more  to  one's  enrichment  than 
ten  tenths  used  in  a  haphazard,  self-indulgent 
manner.  So  surely,  therefore,  as  a  young  man 
refuses  to  deny  himself  and  set  aside  any  propor- 
tion of  his  income  for  benevolent  purposes,  so 
surely  is  he  laying  the  foundation  of  carelessness. 


A  Rich- 
Poor  Man 


Divine  Method  of  Securing  Means      127 

of  self-indulgence  and  thus  making  improbable 
the  accumulation  of  a  fortune. 

The  margin  is  the  key  to  fortune.  The  growth  Margin  the 
of  a  fortune  depends  not  upon  one  s  earnmgs,  Fortune 
nor  his  expenditures  alone,  but  upon  the  preser- 
vation of  the  margin  between  the  two.  Tithing 
teaches  the  doctrine  of  the  margin,  and  inaugu- 
rates it  in  the  life  of  every  tither.  Nine  tenths 
in  the  hands  of  the  man  who  has  learned  the  doc- 
trine of  the  margin  are  more  than  ten  tenths 
in  the  hands  of  the  same  man  before  he  has 
learned  obedience  to  that  law. 

One  can  practice  self-denial  and  system  suf- 
ficiently to  set  aside  a  tithe  and  then  keep  it  for 
himself.  In  case  this  man  does  not  become 
greedy  and  overreach  himself  in  his  haste  to  be 
rich,  he  will  reap  the  temporal  reward  of  the 
tither.  But  he  will  miss  the  spiritual  blessings. 
It  is  possible  to  accumulate  money  by  observing 
the  first  half  of  the  principle  of  tithing,  namely, 
the  doctrine  of  the  margin.  But  the  first  half 
makes  a  rich-poor  man.  I  know  an  aged  couple 
who  by  forty  years  of  business  skill  and  self- 
denial  accumulated  more  than  a  million  dollars. 
They  longed  to  enjoy  what  they  supposed  their 
rich  neighbors  enjoyed.  They  built  one  of  the 
finest  houses  on  the  avenue  in  the  city,  or  rather 
hired  an  architect  to  build  it.  They  found  the 
mansion  a  prison;  and  the  only  part  of  it  which 


128  God's  Missionary  Plan 

seemed  at  all  like  home  was  the  kitchen ;  and  they 
lived  there.  They  felt  some  slight  stirrings  of 
artistic  taste,  and  they  longed  to  have  fine  paint- 
ings on  their  walls  like  the  paintings  of  their 
Purchasing  ncw  neighbors.  Walking  down  the  street  one 
suppiie'^s  d3.y — for  they  did  not  enjoy  their  carriage — they 
saw  a  lithograph  which  greatly  pleased  them. 
The  old  man  was  ashamed  to  display  his  igno- 
rance by  asking  its  price.  He  had  heard  that 
good  paintings  cost  from  three  hundred  to  five 
hundred  dollars,  and  he  knew  this  was  very 
pretty.  So  with  difficulty  he  wrote  out  his  check 
and  handed  it  to  the  clerk  and  asked  to  have  a 
thousand  dollars'  worth  of  such  pictures  sent  to 
his  new  home.  He  hoped  he  might  receive  two 
or  possibly  three  of  the  pictures ;  and  was  greatly 
astonished  when  a  wagonload  of  lithographs  was 
delivered  at  his  home.  You  smile;  but  that 
aged  millionaire  and  his  wife  were  pitiably  poor. 
It  is  possible  to  be  rich  in  this  world's  goods  and 
not  rich  toward  God.  There  are  Methodist  mil- 
lionaires who  throughout  eternity  will  be  poorer 
than  the  children  of  the  almshouses.  The  cure 
for  self-indulgence  and  extravagance  and  pov- 
erty on  the  one  side  and  for  greed  and  spiritual 
poverty  on  the  other  side  is  found  in  partnership 
with  God  carried  on  through  proportional  giving. 
"See  that  ye  abound  in  this  grace  also." 

Above  all  there  is  a  divine  providence  in  hu- 


Divine  Method  of  Securing  Means      129 

man  affairs.     God  is  determined  that  everyone      christian 
of  his  children  shall  at  least  have  the  invitation  ^     ^  *^ 

to  come  home.  But  he  cannot  carry  forward  the 
great  evangelistic,  ecclesiastical,  and  educational 
enterprises  necessary  for  the  redemption  of  our 
race  without  immense  sums  of  money.  Hence 
he  not  only  calls  ministers  and  missionaries  to 
peculiar  tasks,  but  he  calls  all  his  children  to  fel- 
lowship and  partnership  with  himself.  We  are 
all  God's  stewards,  and  each  one  must  give  an 
account  of  his  stewardship.  If  we  are  faithful 
to  the  five  talents  committed  to  our  care,  we 
shall  find  them  becoming  ten.  God  wants  men 
whom  he  can  trust  to  use  wealth  for  the  kingdom, 
and  he  pours  money  into  every  such  man's  lap, 
unless  he  desires  to  use  that  man  for  some  serv- 
ice even  higher  than  faithful  stewardship  in  the 
use  of  money. 

Many  years  ago  a  poor  widow  told  her  sons  a  widow's 
that  they  must  learn  to  be  generous,  else  they 
would  become  men  of  mean  and  little  spirits. 
She  enforced  her  teaching  by  putting  into  the 
hands  of  each  child  every  Sunday  morning  a 
small  amount  of  money  for  the  support  of  the 
Gospel  Soon  the  children  began  to  make  the 
contribution  from  their  own  earnings.  The 
mother's  teaching  was  so  impressed  upon  one 
son  that  he  early  determined  to  keep  count  of  his 
contributions  and  to  give  a  thousand  dollars  to 


Two  Sons 


Well  Kept 


130  God's  Missionary  Plan 

the  Lord  in  order  that  he  might  overcome  the 
mean  and  stingy  spirit  which  his  mother  had 
described  and  which  he  beHeved  possessed  him. 
The  amount  was  twice  as  much  as  the  mother 
and  all  the  children  were  worth.  The  mother 
was  surprised  and  gratified  at  the  son's  announce- 
ment of  his  purpose;  but  she  did  not  expect  he 
A  Resolution  would  cvcr  bc  able  to  carry  it  out.  The  resolu- 
tion  cost  years  of  effort.  But  that  son  astonished 
and  delighted  his  mother  before  her  death  by 
bringing  to  her  his  accounts,  showing  that  he 
had  paid  a  thousand  dollars  into  the  Lord's  treas- 
ury. The  industry  and  self-denial  and  system 
developed  by  this  struggle  became,  with  the 
blessing  of  God,  the  foundation  of  a  successful 
business  career.  This  man  completed  five  years 
ago  the  larger  but  not  more  difficult  task  of  rais- 
ing his  gift  of  a  thousand  dollars  to  the  Lord 
to  one  hundred  thousand  dollars.  By  his  life  and 
gifts  probably  he  has  done  more  for  the  church 
and  the  kingdom  in  the  city  where  he  lives  than 
any  minister  who  has  served  that  city  during  his 
lifetime.  How  blessed  is  such  a  partnership  with 
God!  Upon  the  other  hand,  a  brother  of  this 
man,  who  would  not  learn  self-denial  and  thus 
become  rich  toward  God,  has  become  so  reduced 
financially  by  his  vices  that  for  fifteen  years  he 
has  been  a  pensioner  on  his  more  generous 
brother.     You  can  multiply  by  the  scores  cases 


Divine  Method  of  Securing  Means      131 

similar  to  the  above.  The  devil  is  a  poor  pay- 
master. You  all  know  people  who  have  been 
ruined  by  their  extravagance.  It  is  indeed 
possible  that  a  few  unsystematic,  impulsive 
givers  have  occasionally  subscribed  too  much  for 
church  enterprises.  But  you  cannot  name  one 
systematic,  conscientious,  proportional  giver,  or 
a  single  tither  who,  by  his  own  testimony,  or  in 
your  own  calm  judgment,  has  suffered  permanent 
financial  loss.  The  Jews  are  the  only  people  who 
through  systematic,  voluntary  gifts  have  ever 
approached  the  tithe;  they  furnish  fewer  candi- 
dates for  the  almshouse  than  any  other  people, 
and  they  are  confessedly  the  most  successful  peo- 
ple financially  on  earth — ^here  is  the  scientific  test 
of  experiment.  Nine  tenths  plus  God  are  more 
than  ten  tenths  without  him. 

The  crisis  is  upon  us.  The  twentieth  century  ^^'j^'^^"  ^^^ 
has  dawned.  The  nations  are  at  our  doors  and  Movement 
needing  help.  God  is  hovering  over  us.  Tithing, 
or  at  least  proportional  giving,  is  one  method  of 
relief,  and  so  far  as  I  can  see,  the  only  way  out. 
You  cannot  maintain  the  New  Testament  exam- 
ple of  the  devotion  of  one  seventh  of  one's  time 
to  the  service  and  worship  of  God  and  deny  the 
New  Testament  injunction  and  example  of  sys- 
tematic and  proportional  gifts  for  the  worship 
and  service  of  God.  "Bring  ye  the  whole  tithe 
into  the  store-house,  that  there  may  be  food  in 


132  God's  Missionary  Plan 

my  house,  and  prove  me  now  herewith,  saith 
Jehovah  of  hosts,  if  I  will  not  open  you  the  win- 
dows of  heaven,  and  pour  you  out  a  blessing, 
that  there  shall  not  be  room  enough  to  receive  it." 
When  the  Pharisees  brought  their  tithes  of  mint 
and  anise  and  cummin  and  neglected  the  weight- 
ier matters  of  the  law,  justice,  and  mercy,  "these," 
said  Jesus,  "ye  ought  to  have  done,  and  not  to 
have  left  the  other  undone" 


CHAPTER  VIII 
The  Divine  Method  of  Securing  Results 

These  mere  glimpses  of  Christian  work  in   chinaa 
China  are  not  fair  samples  of  the  long  and  pain-   En°rurfge- 
ful  and  discouraging  labors  which  our  mission-   "^^nt 
aries  have  been  obliged  to  perform  in  every  land. 
But  each  incident  is  true,  and  is  a  fair  illustra- 
tion of  the  encouragement  which  is  now  coming 
to  the  missionaries  in  China  as  a  result  of  one 
hundred   years    of    effort   and   because   of   the 
strange  awakening  of  the  people. 

To  bee^in  at  the  bes^inninsr,  so  far  as  my  work  Pentecostal 

i     X  ^      1  r  1         Scenes  in 

IS  concerned,  I  preached  my  first  sermon  to  the  Foochow 
Chinese  in  Foochow  in  1904.  While  there  are 
difficulties  in  preaching  through  an  interpreter, 
there  are  sometimes  advantages  also.  I  had 
an  opportunity,  while  the  interpreter  was  trans- 
lating each  sentence  into  Chinese,  to  think  not 
only  of  the  next  sentence  which  I  would  utter, 
but  to  watch  the  effect  of  the  last  sentence  upon 
the  audience.  I  was  preaching  upon  the  new 
birth  and  upon  the  baptism  of  Pentecost.  One 
who  is  accustomed  to  revival  preaching  at  home 
learns  to  watch  closely  the  temper  of  an  audience. 
In  this  case,  I  soon  became  convinced  that  per- 
sons in  the  audience  were  under  conviction  either 
133 


134  God's  Missionary  Plan 

of  sin  or  of  the  lack  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  They 
listened  with  an  intentness  that  astonished  me, 
and  I  felt  that  I  ought  to  close  the  meeting  with 
an  altar  service.  Upon  the  contrary,  I  remem- 
bered that  in  this  city  where  I  was  now  preaching 
our  missionaries  labored  ten  years,  building  two 
churches — one  inside  and  one  outside  the  city 
walls — establishing  schools,  conducting  medical 
work,  distributing  tracts,  before  they  could  per- 
suade a  single  Chinese  to  be  baptized.  I  re- 
member also  that  the  first  Protestant  mission- 
ary to  China,  Robert  Morrison,  had  to  labor 
twenty-seven  years  to  win  three  converts,  who, 
because  they  were  in  his  employ,  were  stigma- 
tized by  the  other  Chinese  as  "rice  Christians.'*  I 
An  Altar  had  not  mentioned  the  possibility  of  an  altar 
service  to  the  missionaries,  because  such  a  service 
had  not  occurred  to  me  before  I  began  the  ser- 
mon. But  despite  all  my  fears,  the  impression 
of  conviction  in  the  audience  became  so  strong 
that  I  timidly  ventured  in  closing  to  give  the 
invitation  to  the  altar.  I  limited  this,  however, 
to  those  who  were  Christians,  but  who  might 
desire  the  larger  and  fuller  experience  of  Pente- 
cost, which  I  had  been  portraying.  To  my  sur- 
prise, I  confess,  and  great  delight,  about  thirty 
men  came  to  the  altar.  My  faith  increased, 
and  I  then  suggested  that  any  persons  who  were 
not  church  members,  but  who  were  willing  to 


Politeness 


Divine  Method  of  Securing  Results      135 

break  with  idolatry  might  also  come  to  the  altar 
with  us.  Here  again,  to  my  surprise,  I  must 
confess,  for  my  faith  was  weak,  some  twenty-five 
more  rose  and  came  to  the  altar.  Immediately  it 
occurred  to  me  that  the  people  were  accepting 
my  invitation  out  of  politeness.  The  Chinese  are 
a  very  poHte  people,  and  I  conceived  that  possibly 
they  might  now  be  following  my  wishes  out 
of  their  great  desire  to  please  me.  Consequently 
I  expressed  my  great  appreciation  of  their  polite-  Deeper  Than 
ness  and  their  willingness  to  do  whatever  I 
asked  them;  but  added  that  those  only  must 
come  to  the  altar  who  had  a  genuine  convic- 
tion of  sin  or  a  desire  for  the  Holy  Spirit,  that 
coming  to  the  altar  on  the  invitation  to  break 
with  idolatry  would  lead  some  who  were  now 
kneeling  to  persecution  by  their  families  and  their 
clans,  and  that  no  one  must  remain  at  the  altar 
who  was  not  willing  to  break  absolutely  with  all 
idolatry  at  any  cost  and  that  therefore  all  who 
were  at  the  altar  out  of  politeness  and  were  not 
church  members  had  better  rise  quietly  and  re- 
sume their  seats.  I  expected  a  considerable  num- 
ber to  return  to  their  seats  at  this  invitation. 
To  my  surprise,  not  one  arose  and  returned,  but 
while  we  were  singing  a  stanza,  several  more 
came  to  the  altar.  It  became  clear  that  the  work 
was  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  I  ceased  interfering 
and  let  the  people  follow  their  convictions.     I 


136  God's  Missionary  Plan 

noticed,  in  the  meantime,  that  no  women  had 
come  to  the  altar,  and  that  some  of  them  were 
weeping  and  many  of  them  were  looking  with 
intense  interest  toward  their  husbands  and  sons 
who  were  going  to  the  altar.  I  told  them  I  un- 
derstood that  they  had  not  come  to  the  altar  be- 
cause it  was  not  customary  in  China  for  men  and 
women  to  kneel  side  by  side,  but  they  might 
kneel  where  they  were.  Suffice  it  to  say  that 
before  the  close  of  the  service  between  two  and 
three  hundred  men  and  women  were  earnestly 
calling  upon  God  either  for  the  baptism  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  or  for  the  forgiveness  of  their  sins. 
It  was  a  memorable  altar  service  and  a  marvelous 
victory  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 
Widespread  As  the  scrvice  was  closing,  I  was  again  as- 
sailed with  inward  doubts.  The  tempter  said  to 
me :  This  is  simply  a  special  movement,  vouch- 
safed to  you  by  the  Holy  Spirit,  to  encourage 
your  coming  to  China,  but  you  must  not  expect 
any  such  experience  as  this  in  other  places.  In- 
deed, it  seemed  reasonable  that  I  should  expect 
a  fuller  preparation  for  the  acceptance  of  the 
Gospel  and  of  the  baptism  of  the  Spirit  at  our 
oldest  mission  than  in  other  places.  But  at  the 
close  of  the  service  I  was  somewhat  surprised 
and  delighted  to  find  the  missionaries  undisturbed 
by  the  special  proceedings  and  indeed  remarking 
that  the  large  number  coming  to  the  altar  was 


Divine  Method  of  Securing  Results      137 

only  an  illustration  of  what  those  engaged  in 
evangelistic  work  had  been  witnessing  to  a 
greater  or  less  extent  all  through  the  Conference 
during  the  year.  In  a  word,  I  then  learned  for 
the  first  time  that  a  general  spirit  of  conviction 
and  a  readiness  to  accept  the  Gospel  existed  in 
China  to  an  extent  unprecedented  in  our  mis- 
sionary history. 

I  was  encouraged  by  this  service  to  give  the  Response  at 
invitation  in  other  places  throughout  the  empire,  invitation 
In  churches,  in  private  houses,  in  halls,  and  upon 
the  streets,  and  even  in  temple  areas,  I  have  asked 
the  people  repeatedly  for  an  immediate  decision 
to  break  entirely  with  idolatry  and  ancestor  wor- 
ship and  accept  Christ.  In  response  to  one  hun- 
dred and  thirty  or  forty  invitations  given  I  have 
never  seen  a  service  in  which  at  least  some  one 
did  not  immediately  decide  to  become  a  Christian, 
the  number  varying  from  two  or  three  up  to  as 
high  as  two  hundred. 

A   STUDENT   COMING  TO   CHRIST 

The  day  following:  the  memorable  altar  service,   Purpose  of 

•^  *'  'the  First  Com- 

we  left  Foochow  for  Ngucheng  to  hold  the  Foo-  mandment 
chow  Conference.  On  returning  from  Hinghua, 
some  four  weeks  later,  it  was  necessary  to  re- 
main five  or  six  days  in  Foochow  in  order  to 
secure  a  boat  to  Shanghai.  At  the  invitation  of 
the  Chinese  pastors  and  the  missionaries,  we  held 


138  God's  Missionary  Plan 

special  services  during  these  four  or  five  days. 
At  the  close  of  a  Sunday  night  service  quite 
similar  in  character  to  the  one  described  above, 
and  in  which  some  fifty  or  more  had  come  to  the 
altar,  I  went  back  to  my  room  thoroughly  ex- 
hausted physically  and  mentally,  but  full  of 
spiritual  encouragement.  A  half  hour  later  there 
came  a  tap  at  the  door,  and  inquiry  was  made 
upon  the  part  of  one  of  the  missionaries  if  I  could 
yet  meet  a  Chinese  student  who  seemed  to  be 
under  deep  conviction  of  sin.  On  the  missionary 
and  student  entering,  the  latter  said  to  me  very 
The  Con-  earnestly :  "I  want  you  to  change  the  conditions 
ditions  of  ^f  besfinning  the  Christian  life."    I  asked  him  in 

Salvation  °  ° 

what  respect  he  desired  the  change.  He  replied : 
'*In  regard  to  forbidding  joining  with  one's  par- 
ents in  worshiping  ancestors."  He  added  im- 
mediately :  "You  put  conditions  upon  us  students 
in  China  which  you  never  exacted  of  your  stu- 
dents at  home.  You  make  it  much  harder  for 
us  to  become  Christians  than  for  young  people 
in  America  to  become  Christians.  I  want  you  to 
modify  the  conditions  so  as  to  make  them  equal 
in  the  two  countries."  I  replied :  "I  do  not  make 
the  conditions  of  salvation;  simply  have  been 
announcing  the  conditions  which  are  found  in 
the  Bible;  and  the  first  command  in  the  Bible 
forbids  the  worship  of  any  other  gods."  I  real- 
ized more  fully  on  that  night  and  on  a  hundred 


Divine  Method  of  Securing  Results      139 

subsequent  occasions  the  significance  of  that  first 
command.  The  Chinese,  Hke  the  Jews  on  enter- 
ing the  promised  land,  are  very  wilHng  to  add 
the  service  of  the  true  God  to  their  ancestor  wor- 
ship and  their  idol  worship  and  thus  increase 
in  their  minds  their  chances  of  salvation.  But 
their  ancestor  worship  is  degrading,  and  it  is 
simply  impossible  to  permit  seekers  in  China,  as 
it  was  impossible  in  the  earlier  days  to  permit 
the  Jews,  to  combine  idolatry  with  the  worship 
of  the  true  God. 

This  young  man  told  me  that  his  own  mother  Safety  in 
had  forsaken  him  in  childhood,  and  that  he  had  consc"eLe 
not  the  slightest  knowledge  of  her;  that  his 
present  mother  had  taken  him  when  he  was 
ready  to  perish  and  had  nourished  him  and 
brought  him  up ;  that  she  was  a  woman  of  some 
property  and  standing  in  the  community ;  that  she 
would  be  subjected  to  severe  persecution  if  she 
became  a  Christian;  that  he  had  sent  her  word 
the  preceding  winter  that  he  could  not  join  in  the 
idol  processions  at  home,  and  that  she  had  then 
sent  him  w^ord  not  to  come  home  until  he  could 
unite  in  the  idol  worship  because  she  knew  that 
his  refusal  would  bring  persecution  upon  them 
as  a  family.  He  added,  with  apparently  the 
strongest  conviction  of  the  truthfulness  of  his 
statement:  "My  mother  will  commit  suicide  if  I 
become  a  Christian  and  refuse  to  join  her  in  the 


140  God's  Missionary  Plan 

ancestral  worship.  Do  you  demand  of  me  that 
I  drive  my  mother  to  suicide?"  I  asked  him  if 
there  had  not  been  periods  in  his  past  life  when 
he  had  obeyed  his  conscience,  and  if  there  were 
not  times  when  he  had  disobeyed  it.  He  was 
entirely  familiar  with  such  experiences  and  an- 
swered promptly  in  the  affirmative.  I  asked  him 
Results  of  what  had  been  the  results  of  his  experiments :  if, 
Experiments  ^^^^  ^^  ^^^  disobcycd  his  conscicncc,  he  did  not 
always  find  reason  afterward  to  regret  it;  and 
if,  on  the  other  hand,  when  obedience  seemed 
exceedingly  hard,  he  had  not  learned  afterward 
that  this  was  the  safer  course.  Here  again  his 
experience  agreed  with  the  experience  of 
mankind  that  obedience  is  always  wise.  I  said: 
"Your  judgment  has  been  enlightened  since  com- 
ing to  the  college  at  Foochow.  You  have  come 
in  contact  with  Western  civilization.  You  have 
learned  to  read  the  Bible;  and  your  own  con- 
science tells  you  that  you  ought  to  worship  the 
true  God  and  forsake  idolatry."  Here  again  he 
admitted  that  he  had  been  under  such  conviction 
since  my  visit  to  Foochow  a  month  before  that 
he  had  lost  much  sleep  and  had  been  sorely 
troubled.  I  added :  "This  voice  of  conscience  is 
the  voice  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  your  soul,  and  as 
you  have  found  in  the  past  that  obedience  is  bet- 
ter, so  now  in  this  crisis,  obedience  is  your  only 
safe  course/'     But  added  he:    "Will  you  force 


ardofWork 


Divine  Method  of  Securing  Results      141 

me  to  drive  my  mother  to  suicide?  I  am  sure 
that  in  her  humiliation  and  shame  and  the  dis- 
tress which  will  come  upon  our  family,  she  will 
take  her  own  life."  Larger  experience  in  China 
has  enabled  me  to  realize  much  more  fully  than 
I  did  that  night  the  real  danger  of  suicide.  I 
said  to  him :  ''Does  not  your  mother  at  home  do 
much  of  the  work  in  the  garden  and  the  drudgery 
about  the  house,  while  you  sit  and  wait  for  pupils 
to  teach?"  He  replied  that  such  drudgery  was  a  New  stand- 
woman's  work  in  China,  and  that  it  would  create 
much  excitement  and  prevent  him  securing  any 
students  if  he  presumed  to  relieve  his  mother  of 
this  drudgery.  I  replied:  "Such  conduct  is  not 
even  decent  Confucianism,  not  to  mention  Chris- 
tianity. Even  your  own  writings  teach  a  rever- 
ence for  parents  and  tell  of  the  efforts  upon  the 
part  of  sons  to  relieve  them  of  their  burdens." 
I  added  that  Christianity  enjoins  even  a  higher 
love  of  parents  than  Confucianism,  and  said: 
"If  on  reaching  your  home,  you  show  your 
mother  your  love  for  her  by  relieving  her  of  this 
drudgery,  she  will  be  so  astonished  at  the  first 
that  she  will  not  commit  suicide,  at  least  until 
she  sees  what  you  are  going  to  do;  and  when 
she  learns  of  the  kindness  and  thoughtfulness 
and  self-sacrifice  which  Christianity  produces  in 
your  heart,  she  will  never  be  driven  by  it  to 
suicide."  I  assured  him  this  was  the  final  tempta- 


142  God's  Missionary  Plan 

tion  of  satan  to  keep  him  from  yielding  his 
heart  to  Christ,  and  that  he  must  venture  in  this 
matter  upon  faith  just  as  he  must  accept  his  own 
salvation  by  faith.  The  argument  lasted  until 
nearly  midnight.  At  last  he  said:  "My  heart  is 
so  heavy  and  my  conviction  so  deep  that  I  must 
have  relief  and  I  will  trust  your  statements  and 
the  promises  of  the  Bible  and  surrender."  He 
knelt  with  the  missionary  and  myself  and  made  a 
heart-broken  prayer  for  himself,  followed  by 
prayers  on  our  part,  and  soon  the  light  came  to 
his  heart.  Do  you  not  think  that  young  people  in 
China  have  as  deep  a  conviction  of  sin  and  recog- 
nize as  fully  the  break  which  it  is  necessary  for 
them  to  make  with  the  world  as  young  people 
in  America  ?    The  mother  did  not  kill  herself. 

PREACHING  IN  A   HEATHEN  TEMPLE 

A  "Gospel"       One  winter  day,  after  we  had  been  in  China 

for 

Heathenism  some  four  or  fivc  months,  we  were  traveling  in 
Szechuen  on  our  way  to  Suiling,  two  thousand 
miles  west  of  Shanghai.  In  the  evening  we 
reached  a  city  of  some  forty  thousand  inhabi- 
tants. When  traveling,  the  missionaries  stop  not 
only  with  the  missionaries  of  their  own  church, 
but  with  other  Protestant  missionaries  when 
they  cannot  reach  their  own.  If  no  missionaries 
are  to  be  found,  they  frequently  stop  at  their  own 
or   neighboring  churches.     But  as   there   were 


Divine  Method  of  Securing  Results      143 

neither  missionaries  nor  churches  in  that  city,  we 
went  to  the  Chinese  inn.  We  were  shown  to 
an  inner  room  next  to  the  household,  because 
foreigners  are  always  given  one  of  the  safest 
rooms  in  the  house.  Unfortunately  the  pig  is 
usually  kept  at  night  also  in  the  safest  part  of  the 
house  that  he  may  not  be  stolen.  The  pig  is 
therefore  usually  in  a  pen  by  the  side  of  your  The  Chinese 
room,  or  if  your  room  happens  to  have  a  board 
floor,  under  the  floor.  In  this  case  the  floor  was 
of  clay,  and  as  damp  as  many  cellars  in  America. 
Not  one  house  in  a  thousand  has  window  glass, 
and  this  room  had  the  customary  opening  cov- 
ered with  thin  rice  paper.  The  room  was  dirty 
and  damp  and  cold  and  full  of  foul  smells.  The 
Chinese  k'ang,  or  bed,  is  built  of  bricks,  about 
the  height  of  a  lounge.  It  is  covered  with 
straw,  and  the  straw  and  bricks  are  usually 
full  of  vermin.  We  spread  our  oil  cloths  care- 
fully over  the  k'angs,  set  up  our  camp  cots  on 
top  of  the  oil  cloths,  and  made  our  beds  on 
them.  This  work  was  soon  ended,  and  while 
waiting  for  supper,  which  our  Chinese  cook  was 
preparing,  I  went  out  and  walked  along  the 
streets  in  order  to  get  warm.  We  were  in  the 
latitude  of  New  Orleans,  and  although  the  day 
was  chilly,  multitudes  of  Chinese  people  were  out 
of  doors.  The  street  soon  ran  into  a  temple  area, 
and  we  saw  several  hundred  men  there  whose 


144  God's  Missionary  Plan 

attention  was  immediately  directed  to  our  pres- 
ence. I  returned  to  the  inn  and  asked  Brother 
Johanson,  who  was  conducting  Mrs.  Bashford 
and  myself  to  the  West  China  Conference,  to 
bring  his  mandolin  and  we  would  hold  a  service. 
It  is  possible  to  secure  a  crowd  and  start  a  service 
almost  anywhere  in  China  within  five  minutes. 
We  returned  to  the  temple  area  and  Mr.  Johan- 
son began  to  play  the  mandolin  and  sing  that 
little  hymn, 

"Jesus  loves  me,  this  I  know, 
For  the  Bible  tells  me  so." 

We  soon  had  a  crowd  of  from  five  hundred  to  a 
winninga        thousaud,  and  Brother  Johanson  soon  had  them 

Strange  Crowd  '  *' 

attempting  to  sing  the  chorus.  After  the  hymn 
I  said  to  them  that  I  would  gladly  explain 
the  cause  which  brought  us  so  many  thou- 
sand li,^  but  that  we  were  in  the  temple  area  and 
this  Bible,  the  book  which  we  had  brought,  con- 
tained a  revelation  that  there  was  only  one  God, 
and  condemned  idol  worship,  and  that  I  might 
be  offending  their  idols  by  speaking  in  the  temple 
area;  and  that  as  I  was  their  guest,  I  must  not 
give  them  or  their  idols  needless  offense.  I 
paused  for  their  consent.  ^\n  appeal  to  the  polite- 
ness of  the  Chinese  never  fails  to  secure  a 
response,  and  they  promptly  bade  me  go  on  and 
speak  freely  my  message.     I  then  preached  for 

^About  a  third  of  a  mile. 


be  True 


Divine  Method  of  Securing  Results      145 

nearly  half  an  hour  on  the  text,  "God  so  loved 
the  world,  that  he  gave  his  only  begotten  Son, 
that  whosoever  believeth  on  him  should  not  perish 
but  have  eternal  life."  It  is  easy  in  China  to 
convince  the  people  of  future  punishment.  The 
Chinese  are  not  foolish  enough  to  believe  that 
a  man  can  escape  in  the  next  world  the  conse- 
quences of  his  conduct  in  this  world.  Their  own 
books  teach  in  substance  that  whatsoever  a  man 
soweth  that  shall  he  also  reap.  They  believe  in  a 
God  who  punishes.  But  when  I  told  them  of  a  Too^coodto 
God  who  loves  men  and  who  had  sent  his  own 
Son  to  redeem  them ;  when  I  told  them  that  men 
had  put  this  Son  to  death  and  that  he  had  risen 
again  from  the  dead;  that  he  had  ascended  to 
heaven  and  that  he  had  given  his  followers  a 
commission  to  disciple  all  nations,  and  that  we 
had  a  revelation  from  this  God  in  our  book ;  that 
this  Jesus  had  appeared  in  Asia,  and  not  in 
America;  that  he  belonged  to  them  as  much  as 
he  belonged  to  us,  that  they  were  by  creation 
God's  children ;  and  that  God  desired  us  all  to  find 
salvation  through  Jesus  Christ,  the  story  seemed 
literally  too  good  to  be  true.  Indeed,  that  word 
"Gospel,"  or  "good  news,"  has  taken  on  an 
entirely  new  meaning  since  I  have  been  in  China. 

At  the  close  of  the  sermon,  I  asked  them  how   Ready  to 
many  had  ever  heard  the  Gospel  before.    Not  a 
man   raised   his   hand   or   made   any   response. 


Support  I 
Teacher 


146  God*s  Missionary  Plan 

"Surely  you  have  heard  some  missionary  tell  this 
story  before,"  I  said;  but  they  replied  that  they 
had  never  heard  it  before.    They  added  that  they 
The  New  had  heard  about  a  Western  religion,  but  that  they 

anVsook  ^^^^  uever  listened  to  the  story  of  it  before  this 

day.  We  showed  them  the  Bible,  but  they  said 
that  they  never  had  seen  the  book,  and  were 
anxious  to  have  a  copy  left  among  them.  I  said 
to  them :  "I  am  not  sure  that  I  can  find  a  person 
to  come  and  teach  you  this  religion.  But  if  I 
can  find  a  teacher,  we  could  not  teach  the  reli- 
gion here  in  your  temple,  and  you  would  need  to 
find  a  hall  or  building  where  the  religion  could 
be  taught."  They  thought  they  could  rent  a 
building.  I  added  further  that  the  first  com- 
mandment in  our  Bible  forbids  idol  worship; 
that  our  Bible  declares  the  name  of  idols  or 
other  gods  to  be  emptiness  or  nothingness;  that 
there  were  no  other  gods  and  that  they  must  give 
up  idol  worship  if  they  wished  to  become  Chris- 
tians. I  then  appealed  to  them  to  know  how 
many  of  them,  from  such  knowledge  as  they  now 
had  of  their  idols  on  the  one  side  and  of  this 
religion,  desired  to  become  Christians  and  would 
come  to  the  new  teacher  for  instruction,  if  I 
could  find  a  teacher  for  them.  I  suppose  two 
hundred  and  fifty  of  them  promptly  raised  their 
hands.  At  the  close  of  the  service  forty  or  fifty 
of  them  gathered  around  to  assure  me  that  they 


Divine  Method  of  Securing  Results      147 

could  find  a  home  for  the  teacher  and  a  hall  in 
which  he  could  teach  them,  and  that  they  would 
help  support  him  if  I  would  send  a  man  to  teach 
this  new  religion  to  them.  Surely  the  set  time 
of  favor  in  China  has  come. 

You  who  read  the  story  will  think  that  the   t^^  Yielding 

/-^i  •  •         1  1  M  1  of  a  Firm  and 

Chmese  are  simply  children,  ready  to  hear  and  conservative 
adopt  any  new  doctrine.  Upon  the  contrary,  p«°p'« 
they  are  the  most  firm  and  conservative  people 
upon  the  face  of  the  earth.  Had  our  early  mis- 
sionaries seen  any  such  manifestations  of  readi- 
ness upon  the  part  of  the  Chinese  to  accept  the 
Gospel,  they  would  have  thought  the  golden  age 
of  Christ  to  be  at  hand. 


A  LECTURE  ON  AMERICAN  EDUCATION 


Before 
Chinese 


While  I  was  in  Peking  in  1905  attending  an 
interdenominational  conference  called  to  secure  Government 
the  agreement  of  missionaries  upon  certain  trans-  Teachers 
lations  of  the  Bible  and  hymns  and  upon  other 
methods  of  Christian  cooperation,  I  was  invited 
to  speak  on  "American  Education"  before  the 
Chinese  government  teachers  of  Tientsin,  the 
commercial  metropolis  of  North  China.  The 
Commissioner  of  Education  for  the  Chihli  Prov- 
ince had  kindly  consented  to  preside  upon  the 
occasion;  Dr.  Hsi,  President  of  the  Imperial 
College  of  Physicians  and  Surgeons,  a  Chinese 
government  school,  also  sat  upon  the  platform 


148  God's  Missionary  Plan 

as  a  presiding  officer.  The  audience  was  com- 
posed of  native  teachers  in  the  government 
schools  and  the  upper  classmen  from  the  College 
of  Physicians  and  Surgeons.  It  was  a  non- 
Christian  audience,  and  the  lecture  was  upon  a 
secular  subject. 
General  and  J  f^j-gt  gave  an  explanation  of  our  American 
Education  common  school  system  which  apparently  Inter- 
ested them  greatly.  Next  I  discussed  the  ques- 
tion as  to  whether  China  should  aim  at  an 
industrial  or  military  education,  pointing  out  the 
fact  that  Russia  spends  three  cents  per  inhabitant 
for  education  and  $2.04  per  inhabitant  for  mili- 
tary purposes,  and  yet  she  was  being  worsted  by 
Japan.  On  the  contrary,  I  hoped  that  the  exam- 
ple of  Japan  might  not  lead  China  to  enter  upon 
a  military  career.  I  pointed  out  the  fact  that 
China  had  abandoned  feudalism,  which  is  the 
military  organization  of  society,  two  hundred 
years  before  Christ;  that  Europe  had  abandoned 
the  feudal  organization  of  society  four  or  five 
hundred  years  ago ;  and  that  Japan  had  not  aban- 
doned feudalism  until  1868;  and  appealed  to  the 
Chinese  not  to  go  back  to  the  military  system, 
which  she  had  abandoned  two  thousand  years 
before.  I  thought  that  the  great  competition  of 
the  twentieth  century  would  be,  not  In  war,  but 
along  the  lines  of  commerce  and  industry,  and 
that  If  China,  like  the  United  States,  laid  great 


Moral  and 
Spiritual 


Divine  Method  of  Securing  Results      149 

emphasis  upon  education  and  maintained  a  small 
standing  army,  she  might  be  prepared  to  con- 
tend even  with  the  United  States  for  the  indus- 
trial supremacy  of  the  Pacific  Basin  in  the  twen- 
tieth century.  I  watched  the  audience  closely 
and  found  those  whom  I  judged  to  be  the  leaders 
nodding  their  heads  as  sentence  after  sentence 
was  translated  to  them.  Presently  they  began  to 
nod  their  heads  as  I  uttered  each  sentence,  before 
the  translation  came,  and  I  knew  that  I  had  the 
audience  with  me  down  to  this  point. 

In  the  third  place,  I  took  up  the  question  of 
moral  and  spiritual  training,  and  told  them  that  Training 
the  real  problem  in  Western  nations  was  the  clos- 
ing of  the  chasm  between  our  knowledge  of  what 
is  right  and  our  conduct,  between  our  ideals  and 
our  daily  lives.  I  told  them  frankly  that  the 
Western  peoples  had  not  succeeded  in  closing 
this  chasm,  that  this  was  the  great  reproach  upon 
our  existing  civilization.  I  told  them  with  equal 
frankness  that  from  observation  in  at  least  half 
the  provinces  of  their  empire,  they  had  failed 
more  fully  than  Western  nations  to  close  the 
chasm  between  their  own  ideals  and  their  daily 
conduct,  pointing  them  to  the  corruption  of  offi- 
cial life  and  the  degradation  of  the  daily  life  of 
the  Chinese.  I  told  them,  in  conclusion,  that 
there  was  a  body  of  people  in  Western  nations 
who  had  more  nearly  closed  that  chasm  than 


ISO 


God's  Missionary  Plan 


Threefold 
Education 
for  an 
Empire 


any  other  people  whom  I  had  known,  although 
they  were  far  from  being  perfect ;  that  these  peo- 
ple were  called  Christians,  and  that  Jesus  Christ 
seemed  to  me  to  be  the  only  Being  who  could 
enable  us  to  close  this  chasm ;  that  so  far  as  Con- 
fucius and  Buddha  helped  them  toward  the  real- 
ization of  their  ideals  in  daily  life,  they  were 
to  follow  their  teaching ;  but  that  neither  of  these 
had  any  power  to  put  life  into  their  souls,  and 
thus  enable  them  to  lead  new  lives;  that  only  as 
they  experienced  the  new  birth  through  Jesus 
Christ  and  realized  the  indwelling  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  would  they  have  power  to  lead  this  new 
life ;  that  Jesus  Christ  gives  light  and  life  to  the 
moral  universe  just  as  the  sun  gives  light  and 
life  to  the  physical  universe;  and  their  civiliza- 
tion must  be  permeated  by  his  presence,  if  it  was 
to  stand  the  strain  of  the  twentieth  century. 

While  the  leaders  stopped  nodding  their  heads, 
when  my  remarks  on  Jesus  were  interpreted  to 
them,  yet  they  listened  with  great  intensity.  I 
closed  the  address  somewhat  anxious  to  know 
what  effect  I  had  produced  and  yet  firm  in  the 
conviction  that  I  had  not  transgressed  the  proper 
bounds  of  my  subject;  that  I  was  to  express  to 
them  my  convictions  as  to  what  type  of  education 
would  lift  up  and  transform  their  empire,  and 
that  I  had  kept  within  bounds  in  presenting  gen- 
eral education  of  the  masses,  industrial  rather 


Divine  Method  of  Securing  Results      151 

than  military  education  of  the  empire,  and  Chris- 
tian education  as  the  conditions  essential  to  the 
transformation  of  Chinese  civilization. 

After  I  sat  down  the  Commissioner  of  Educa-  ?!:*^!,*^* 

Only  Hope 

tion  arose  and  thanked  me  with  the  customary  of  china 
Chinese  politeness  and  assured  the  audience  that 
a  great  statesman  had  come  from  the  West  and 
had  spoken  words  of  wisdom  which  he  hoped 
they  would  treasure  in  their  hearts  and  embody 
in  their  lives.  Chinese  politeness  prompts  strong 
praise.  Dr.  Hsi  then  arose  and  followed  with  the 
usual  Chinese  compliments,  but  used  the  word 
religious  teacher  instead  of  statesman,  and  sur- 
prised me  by  calling  particular  attention  to  the 
third  division  of  my  subject  and  saying  that  it 
was  by  far  the  most  important  division.  He 
then  added  the  sentence:  "J^sus  Christ  is  the 
only  hope  of  China." 

I    was    astonished    by    Dr.    Hsi's    statement,  a  Heathen 

Leader's 

coming  from  a  heathen  leader;  and  at  the  close  confession 
of  the  service  after  the  polite  formalities  of  the  of  Faith 
farewell  with  the  Chinese  Commission  of  Educa- 
tion were  finished,  I  turned  to  Dr.  Hsi  and  asked 
him  what  led  him  to  say  that  Jesus  Christ  is  the 
only  hope  of  China.  He  answered :  "Because  it 
is  true."  I  replied:  "Certainly,  but  where  did 
you  learn  this  doctrine?"  He  said  that  he  had 
learned  it  from  Dr.  McKenzie.  He  saw  my  de- 
sire for  further  conversation  and  asked  me  to 


152  God's  Missionary  Plan 

dine  with  him  the  next  day.  Accordingly  Mrs. 
Foster,  of  Washington,  Mrs.  Bashford,  and  my- 
self were  the  guests  the  next  afternoon  of  Dr. 
and  Mrs.  Hsi,  and  we  talked  over  the  matter  of 
the  Christian  faith  for  more  than  an  hour.  He 
How  it  told  me  that  he  had  discovered  in  Dr.  McKenzie 

^^^  "  a  power  of  self-control,  of  love  manifesting  itself 
in  service,  such  as  he  had  not  found  in  himself  or 
in  the  other  Chinese,  and  he  had  asked  Dr.  Mc- 
Kenzie the  secret  of  it.  Dr.  McKenzie  had  told 
him  that  it  was  due  to  Jesus  Christ  enthroned  in 
his  heart.  Dr.  Hsi  said  that  he  himself  had  sought 
and  found  this  Jesus.  I  then  said:  "Why  have 
you  not  made  an  open  profession  of  religion  and 
united  with  the  church?"  He  replied  that  the 
church  was  not  willing  to  receive  him  while  he 
worshiped  Confucius,  and  that  as  President  of 
the  College  he  was  obliged  to  go  through  this 
form  of  worship  with  his  pupils.  He  said  that 
the  pupils  all  knew  that  he  was  a  Christian  and 
that  all  his  friends  in  the  community  knew  that 
he  attached  no  importance  whatever  to  this  Con- 
fucian worship;  that  the  question  which  con- 
fronted him  was  the  resignation  of  his  position 
in  order  to  join  the  church  or  the  holding  of  his 
position  so  long  as  he  was  permitted  openly  to 
bear  testimony  in  favor  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  that 
he  was  a  member  of  the  Young  Men's  Christian 
Association.     I  left  him  to  the  guidance  of  the 


Divine  Method  of  Securing  Results      153 

Holy  Spirit,  urging  him  to  follow  the  Spirit's 
directions  upon  this  as  upon  all  subjects  arising 
for  decision.  I  am  sure  that  the  time  will  soon 
come  in  China,  as  it  has  already  come  in  Japan, 
when  officeholders  will  not  be  compelled  to  join 
in  heathen  worship  and  when  some  at  least  of  the 
official  classes  in  China  will  become  open  Chris- 
tians. In  the  meantime  such  men  as  Dr.  Hsi 
are  undermining  the  very  foundations  of  heathen- 
ism, and  are  laying  the  foundations  for  the  new 
Christianity  even  among  the  upper  classes  in  the 
Chinese  empire.  The  Western  world  is  some- 
times amazed  by  what  seems  to  be  a  sudden 
and  impulsive  turning  to  Christ  in  China.  But 
we  must  remember  that  a  hundred  years  of  Prot- 
estant missionary  teaching  and  Hving  has  not 
gone  for  naught,  that  the  foundations  of  heathen- 
ism are  undermined,  and  that  in  many  cases,  the 
foundations  of  the  new  religion  are  being  firmly 
laid  even  though  they  are  still  underneath  the 
surface  and  are  not  seen  by  the  world  at  large. 

We  beg  our  readers  not  to  permit  this  long  The  consum- 
narration  of  personal  experiences  to  lead  them  ^^^1^°° 
to  a  false  conclusion.     I  am  not  justified  even  struggles 
in  claiming  the  title  of  a  missionary.     Nor  can 
China  claim  to  be  the  only  or  the  chief  arena 
of  the  victories  of  the  cross.     India  has  made 
a  far  greater  record  for  increase  of  membership 
in  the  Methodist  Church  during  the  last  twenty 


154  God's  Missionary  Plan 

years  than  has  China.  The  incidents  narrated 
above  can  be  more  than  matched  by  Bishops 
Thoburn,  Warne,  Oldham,  and  Robinson.  In 
the  Philippines,  under  Dr.  Stuntz  and  other 
faithful  missionaries,  there  has  been  a  more 
marked  turning  to  Christ  and  to  Western  civil- 
ization because  of  the  break  of  the  people  with 
Korean  jJ^q  Roman  Catholic  authorities.  Our  church  in 
Korea  made  the  greatest  record  of  increase  in 
membership  in  1906  of  any  field  in  Methodism. 
The  great  mission  fields  of  other  churches  pre- 
sent records  of  evangelization  and  of  the  build- 
ing up  of  self-propagating  churches  not  simply 
in  process  of  development,  but  as  nearing  suc- 
cessful completion.  When  we  see  the  deep  con- 
viction of  sin  which  often  attends  the  preaching 
of  the  gospel  in  pagan  lands,  the  appeal  which 
the  gospel  makes  to  individuals  as  in  the  case  of 
the  Chinese  student,  its  invasion  of  the  very  cita- 
del of  paganism  as  in  the  temple  service,  and 
the  turning  of  the  leaders  to  Christ  as  in  the 
case  of  Dr.  Hsi,  we  are  constrained  to  cry 
out  in  gratitude  and  wonder.  *'What  hath  God 
wrought !" 


CHAPTER  IX 
The  Divine  Providence  and  Missions 
The  presence  of  God  in  missionary  effort  is  Experience  of 
demonstrated  by  the  scientific  test  of  experiment,  witnessing 
Samuel  Taylor  Coleridge  once  wrote  in  sub-  to  Christ 
stance :  If  one  finds  millions  of  human  beings  in 
an  increasing  number  bearing  testimony,  during 
a  period  of  eighteen  centuries,  to  the  peace  and 
power  and  light  which  Christ  has  brought  to 
their  lives;  if  he  hears  not  one  dissenting  testi- 
mony from  a  sincere  follower  of  Christ ;  if,  upon 
the  contrary,  he  hears  those  who  once  followed 
Christ  and  then  deserted  him,  later  bearing  testi- 
mony that  their  deepest  peace  and  their  greatest 
moral  power  were  experienced  during  their 
union  with  him,  what  can  he  conclude  save  that 
Christianity  finds  its  vindication  in  the  deepest 
experience  of  the  race?  Here  is  the  vindication 
by  the  scientific  test  of  experiment.  As,  despite 
the  spots  which  scientists  may  discover  thereon, 
the  sun  is  the  light  and  life  of  the  physical  uni- 
verse, so  despite  the  discovery  of  any  possible 
flaws  in  the  Bible  record,  Jesus  Christ  remains 
the  light  and  life  of  the  moral  universe.  The 
high  original  aim  of  Ritschlianism  in  Germany 
was  to  demonstrate  the  validity  of  Christianity 
155 


156  God's  Missionary  Plan 

without  reference  to  criticism.  Despite  all  histor- 
ical, literary,  or  even  philosophical  objections 
against  the  Christian  faith,  Ritschl  maintained  that 
Christ  so  bears  witness  to  himself  in  the  hearts 
of  those  who  accept  him  and  to  the  world 
through  the  transformed  lives  of  those  who  fol- 
low him  as  to  supplant  the  higher  rationalism 
by  the  highest  rationalism.  John  Wesley  did  for 
modern  Christendom  in  part  what  Bacon  did  for 
modern  science.  As  Bacon  called  the  scientists 
from  abstract  speculation  to  experiment  as  the 
test  of  scientific  truth,  so  Wesley  called  the 
Christian  world  from  theological  speculation  to 
Christian  experience.  His  doctrine  of  the  wit- 
ness of  the  spirit  in  the  heart  of  every  true  be- 
liever has  done  much  to  transform  modern 
Christendom.  Wesley's  doctrine  of  Christian 
experience  exactly  matches  Bacon's  doctrine  of 
scientific  experiment.  The  Christian  Church  is 
moving  from  the  theological  basis  to  the  basis 
of  experience. 

Satisfaction  But  if  we  judgc  Christianity  by  the  satisfac- 
tion it  brings  to  the  higher  nature  of  those  who 
follow  Christ,  is  not  the  high  degree  in  which 
missionaries  enjoy  this  satisfaction  at  least  strik- 
ing? There  is  peace  in  all  cases  of  earnest 
whole-hearted  devotion.  But  where  consecrated 
souls  follow  a  serious  misinterpretation  of  the 
Bible  their  disillusion  sooner  or  later  is  inevitable. 


of 
Missionaries 


Divine  Providence  and  Missions        157 

If  missionary  work  were  due  to  fanaticism,  the 
enchantment  would  have  disappeared  in  a  gen- 
eration, just  as  has  happened  with  the  delusion  of 
Dowieism.  But  the  inward  peace  and  the  trans- 
forming power  attending  mission  work  has  con- 
tinued for  centuries  and  indeed  from  the  days 
of  Qirist.  It  is  a  constant  marvel  at  home  that 
those  whose  hearts  have  once  become  engrossed 
in  missionary  labor  are  uniformly  eager  to  re- 
turn to  their  fields.  If  Ritschlianism  is  correct 
in  its  aim  to  found  the  Christian  Church  on 
Christian  experience,  however  incorrect  its  dis- 
regard of  history  and  philosophy;  if  the  Wes- 
leyan  movement  was  of  God;  if  the  whole  ten- 
dency of  the  modern  church  is  to  fall  back  more 
and  more  from  doctrinal  standards  upon  Christian 
experience ;  if  the  early  church,  with  its  pentecos- 
tal  experiences,  testifies  to  the  peace  and  power 
which  Christ  brings  to  the  souls  of  his  followers, 
then  we  must  concede  that  God  has  vouchsafed 
to  the  missionaries  more  fully  than  to  any  other 
body  of  Christian  workers  this  scientific  test  of 
experience  as  the  divine  vindication  of  their  obe- 
dience to  the  laws  of  the  universe. 

2.  But  the  scientific  test  of  Christian  experi-  social  and 

-^      .      .       .        J  National 

ence  is  more  than  subjective.  Christianity  demon-  Transforma- 
strates  to  the  world  its  divine  power  by  the  trans-  *io°s 
formation  of  the  lives  of  those  who  follow  Jesus 
Christ ;  and  this  transformation  in  the  eyes  of  the 


158 


God's  Missionary  Plan 


Earlier 
Changes  in 
Europe  and 
America 


world  is  more  and  more  complete  and  marvelous 
just  in  proportion  to  the  obedience  with  which 
the  professing  Christian  follows  the  laws  of  the 
universe.  Imperfectly  as  the  church  thus  far 
has  followed  Jesus,  nevertheless  she  has  never 
been  without  a  vindication  in  history  of  her  di- 
vine power  to  transform  the  lives  as  well  as  the 
hearts  of  men.  The  slow  but  gradual  trans- 
formation of  European  civilization  through  the 
Christian  faith,  and  the  passage  of  the  Mississippi 
Valley  and  indeed  of  the  American  continent 
from  barbarism  to  civilization  at  a  single  leap, 
without  intervening  generations  of  semiciviliza- 
tion,  furnish  external  proofs  of  the  presence  and 
power  of  Christ  in  the  world  today  as  convincing 
to  all  thoughtful  minds  as  the  miracle  of  the 
loaves  and  fishes  or  the  stilling  of  the  waves 
upon  the  sea.  But  if  we  find  proofs  that  we  are 
working  in  accordance  with  the  laws  of  the  uni- 
verse and  are  supported  by  the  divine  power  in 
the  gradual  transformation  of  the  civilization  of 
the  home  lands,  we  find  still  more  marked  proofs 
of  the  same  in  the  more  rapid  transformation  of 
heathen  lands  under  missionary  influences. 
Polygamy,  foot-binding,  the  opium  traffic,  witch- 
craft, and  superstition  have  been  steadily  op- 
posed by  missionaries  in  foreign  lands  and  are 
beginning  to  disappear  from  the  face  of  the  earth. 
Modern  education  has  been  introduced  into  most, 


Enlighten- 
ment 


Divine  Providence  and  Missions        159 

if  not  all  heathen  lands  by  the  missionaries.  This 
is  specifically  true  of  Japan,  China,  Siam,  India, 
Turkey,  and  Africa.  The  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church  introduced  the  first  modern  hospital,  the 
first  theological  school,  the  first  type  of  the  pub- 
lic school,  and  the  first  college  for  Western 
learning  into  West  China,  while  the  Canadian 
Methodists  introduced  the  first  printing  presses,  ^^f."^"  °^ 
Ninety  per  cent  of  our  members  in  that  province 
are  adult  men,  and  through  missionary  effort 
ninety  per  cent  of  these  men  can  read  and  write 
as  compared  with  ten  per  cent  of  their  neighbors. 
The  Commercial  Press  at  Shanghai,  which  is 
earning  ten  per  cent  on  the  capital  of  $500,000, 
and  is  unable  to  supply  text-books  of  Western 
science  sufficient  to  meet  the  demand,  was  or- 
ganized by  half  a  dozen  young  men,  trained  by 
that  veteran  missionary,  Dr.  Allen  of  the  Metho- 
dist Episcopal  Church,  South.  The  primary,  in- 
termediate, and  normal  schools  of  India  and 
Ceylon  started  by  the  missionaries  have  so  met 
the  approbation  of  the  government  as  to  receive 
annual  grants  of  aid.  Robert  College,  Constanti- 
nople, is  teaching  a  dozen  different  nationalities 
of  young  men  the  Western  civilization.  The 
students  in  attendance  at  our  mission  school  at 
Singapore  are  substituting  the  English  language 
for  thirty-seven  Asiatic  dialects.  Throughout 
the    Pacific    Islands,    India,    Turkey,    Bulgaria, 


i6o  God's  Missionary  Plan 

Siam,  Japan,  and  China  the  Bible  has  been  trans- 
lated into  the  vernacular,  and  modern  literatures 
are  springing  up  in  these  lands  through  mission- 
ary effort.  Robert  College  at  Constantinople,  the 
Protestant  Syrian  College  at  Beirut,  the  Chris- 
tian College  on  the  Euphrates,  the  Peking  Uni- 
versity, Saint  John's  College  at  Shanghai  and 
the  Christian  colleges  of  India  are  transforming 
the  civilizations  of  the  lands  in  which  they  are 
located.  Maclay,  Verbeck,  and  Harris  in  Japan ; 
Moffatt  and  Livingstone  in  Africa;  Butler  and 
Thoburn  in  India;  Griffith  John,  David  Hill, 
William  Ashmore,  Dr.  Martin,  H.  H.  Lowry, 
Arthur  Smith,  and  Dr.  Allen  in  China,  are  trans- 
forming the  civilization  of  empires.  Here,  then, 
is  the  scientific  test  not  simply  of  inward  experi- 
ences but  of  outward  transformations  wrought 
by  the  power  of  God. 
Testimony  of       Listcn  to  the  testimony  of  impartial  observers 

Observers  .  ■'  .        .      . 

m  regard  to  the  achievements  of  missionaries. 
Darwin,  who  ranks  with  Newton,  Bacon,  and 
Copernicus,  writes :  "I  took  leave  of  the  mission- 
aries with  feelings  of  great  respect  for  their 
useful  and  upright  characters.  The  march  of 
improvement  consequent  upon  the  introduction 
of  Christianity  throughout  the  South  Sea  prob- 
ably stands  by  itself  in  the  records  of  history." 
Professor  Silliman,  of  Yale  University,  says: 
"It  would  be  impossible  for  the  historian  of  the 


Divine  Providence  and  Missions        i6i 

islands  of  the  Pacific  to  ignore  the  important  con- 
tributions of  the  American  missionaries  to 
science."  Hon.  Charles  Denby  writes :  "He  who 
teaches  Christianity  teaches  modern  civiHzation." 
PhilHps  Brooks  wrote  from  India:  "Tell  your 
friends  who  do  not  believe  in  foreign  missions 
that  three  weeks'  study  of  foreign  mission  work 
in  India  would  convert  them  wholly."  William 
Jennings  Bryan  wrote :  "I  do  not  apologize  for  ^ 
mentioning  from  time  to  time  the  institutions 
which  altruistic  Americans  have  scattered  over  our  Altruistic 
the  Orient.  If  we  cannot  boast  that  the  sun  orien"* 
never  sets  on  American  territory,  we  can  find 
satisfaction  in  the  fact  that  the  sun  never  sets 
upon  American  philanthropy.  If  the  boom  of 
our  cannon  does  not  follow  the  orb  of  day  in  his 
daily  round,  the  grateful  thanks  of  those  who 
have  been  the  beneficiaries  of  American  gener- 
osity form  a  chorus  that  encircles  the  globe." 
Robert  Louis  Stevenson  wrote :  "I  had  conceived  ♦ 
a  great  prejudice  against  missions  in  the  South 
Seas,  and  I  had  no  sooner  come  there  than  that 
prejudice  was  at  first  reduced,  and  then  at  last 
annihilated.  Those  who  deblatterate  against 
missions  have  only  one  thing  to  do — go  and 
see  them  on  the  spot."  Marquis  Ito  bears  testi- 
mony: "Japan's  progress  and  development  are  * 
largely  due  to  the  influence  of  missionaries  ex- 
erted in  right  directions  when  Japan  was  first 


1 62  God's  Missionary  Plan 

studying  the  outer  world."  Chulalongkorn,  the 
King  of  Siam,  reports :  "The  American  mission- 
aries have  done  more  to  advance  the  welfare  of 
my  country  and  people  than  any  other  foreign 
influence."  One  of  the  Chinese  High  Commis- 
sioners to  foreign  lands  spoke  in  high  praise  of 
the  unselfish  spirit  of  the  missionaries  and  of  the 
great  service  they  are  rendering  China.  The 
Geographer  Meiniche  wrote :  *Tt  is  scarcely  pos- 
sible to  deny  the  extraordinary  importance  of  the 
missionary  efforts  of  our  time.  They  are  only 
in  their  infancy;  yet  it  is  certain  that  they  will 
wholly  transform  the  natures  and  relations  of  the 
non-Christian  peoples  and  produce  one  of  the 
most  magnificent  and  colossal  revolutions  that 
human  history  records." 

3.  The  presence  of  God   m  missions  grows 
History  as    more  impressivc  when  we  lift  our  eyes  from  the 
a  Whole      evcnts  Occurring  immediately  around  us  to  a  sur- 
vey of  history  as  a  whole.     Professor  R.   T. 
\  Stevenson    has    furnished    in    a    brief,    packed 
volumie   on   The    Missionary    Interpretation   of 
History  a  truer  key  to  history  than  are  Buckle's 
ponderous  volumes  on  the  history  of  European 
civilization  because  the  divine  providence  is  a 
vastly  more  potent  force  in  shaping  the  history 
of  nations  and  of  ages  than  the  external  environ- 
ments of  men. 
Summary       Lg^  ^q  summarize  the  divine  sweep  of  world- 


Missions  a 

Key  to 


Divine  Providence  and  Missions         163 

evangelization  seen  in  the  unfolding  history  of 
the  centuries. 

(i)  It  took  a  thousand  years  to  evangelize —  The  First 
not  to  Christianize — but  simply  to  give  the  good  Yea"s^^°'* 
news  of  the  Gospel  to  fifty  million  souls.  More- 
over, these  one  thousand  years  were  the  begin- 
ning of  the  dispensation  of  the  Spirit  inaugurated 
at  Pentecost,  the  period  in  which  the  style  of 
preaching  was  set  by  Peter  whose  sermon 
brought  three  thousand  to  repentance,  whose 
type  of  evangelism  was  set  by  Paul  who  invaded 
all  Europe  with  his  faith;  above  all  this  first 
period  was  inaugurated  by  Christ  in  that  life  and 
death  through  which  he  reorganized  society  and 
redated  history.  This  thousand  years  so  glori- 
ously inaugurated  witnessed  the  evangelization 
of  fifty  million  people.  Surely  the  power  of  God 
was  manifest  in  the  history  of  the  church. 

(2)  Earthly  empires  lose  their  glory  in  a  The  Next  Five 
thousand  years;  but  Christ  was  simply  coming 
into  possession  of  his  powers  during  the  first  mil- 
lennium. The  evangelization  of  fifty  millions  of 
souls  in  a  thousand  years  was  a  triumph  of  grace ; 
but  he  accomplished  as  much  in  the  next  five 
hundred  years  as  he  had  accomplished  in  the  pre- 
ceding one  thousand  years ;  and  at  the  Reforma- 
tion there  were  one  hundred  million  people  who 
had  heard  the  glad  tidings  of  the  Gospel.  Thus 
Christ  accomplished  as  much  in  the  evangeliza- 


Hundred 
Years 


164  God's  Missionary  Plan 

tion  of  the  world  during  the  third  five  hundred 
years  of  the  existence  of  his  church  upon  earth 
as  during  the  first  two  periods  of  five  hundred 
years  each.  While  earthly  kingdoms  waned,  the 
heavenly  kingdom  was  growing  in  strength  from 
century  to  century,  from  millennium  to  millen- 
nium. 
^^^  (3)  Surely  fifteen  hundred  years  exhaust  the 

Subsequent  vitality  of  earthly  empires.    Neither  Greece,  nor 
Three  Rome,  nor  Babylon,  nor  Assyria,  nor  France,  nor 

Spain,  nor  England,  nor  the  United  States  has 
lasted  for  fifteen  hundred  years.  Only  one  civil- 
ization, and  that  the  Chinese,  has  existed  so  long. 
But  the  kingdom  founded  by  Jesus  Christ  did 
not  lose  its  power  during  the  first  millennium  and 
a  half  of  its  existence.  During  the  next  three 
hundred  years,  Christ  accomplished  as  much  for 
the  evangelization  of  the  human  race  as  during 
the  preceding  fifteen  hundred  years.  One  hun- 
dred millions  had  heard  the  Gospel  at  the  be- 
ginning of  the  sixteenth  century;  two  hundred 
millions  had  heard  the  Gospel  at  the  beginning 
of  the  nineteenth  century.  I  do  not  think  there 
was  any  violation  of  law  in  this  strange  mani- 
festation of  unearthly  power  in  the  kingdom  of 
Jesus  Christ.  There  has  been  simply  the  mani- 
festation in  accordance  with  the  laws  of  the  uni- 
verse of  a  higher  than  earthly  power.  But  surely 
not  any  man  who  looks  facts  in  the  face  can  fail 


Divine  Providence  and  Missions        165 

to  recognize  that  Jesus  Christ  has  made  good  his 
pledge  to  use  the  divine  resources  for  the  en- 
largement of  the  kingdom :  "Lo,  I  am  with  you 
always,  even  unto  the  end  of  the  world." 

(4)  It  is  not  common  to  regard  the  last  cen-  The 
tury  as  a  century  of  miracles,  unless  we  speak  century"*** 
of  the  miracles  of  science.  But  in  the  same  sense 
in  which  the  last  century  witnessed  miracles  of 
science,  it  has  also  witnessed  miracles  of  grace. 
In  neither  case  was  law  violated ;  in  neither  case 
were  we  treated  to  prodigies :  in  both  cases  there 
was  marvelous  advance.  Astounding  as  the  claim  -^ 
sounds,  it  is  literally  true  that  the  work  of  evan- 
gelizing the  human  race  made  more  progress  dur- 
ing the  last  one  hundred  years  than  during  the 
preceding  eighteen  hundred  years.  While  there 
were  two  hundred  million  people  on  earth  in 
1800  who  had  heard  the  glad  tidings  of  the  Gos- 
pel, at  least  five  hundred  millions  on  earth  today 
know  that  "God  so  loved  the  world,  that  he  gave 
his  only  begotten  Son,  that  whosoever  believeth 
on  him  should  not  perish,  but  have  eternal 
life."  Judged  by  human  history  God  is  interested 
in  this  work,  and  God  is  accomplishing  his  pur- 
pose. You  and  I  may  grow  discouraged  if  we 
will;  we  may  lie  down  under  our  burdens  if  we 
will;  we  may  abandon  the  task  as  hopeless  if 
we  will;  we  may  denounce  the  missionaries  as 
fanatics  if  we  will ;  or  we  may  be  honest  enough 


i66  God's  Missionary  Plan 

and  fair  enough  to  go  back  of  the  missionaries 
and  treat  Christianity  as  an  iridescent  dream,  and 
the  Golden  Rule  as  sky-parlor  politics.  But 
whatever  you  or  I  do  or  fail  to  do,  Jesus  Christ 
will  carry  forward  this  task  of  the  evangeliza- 
tion of  the  race.  Surely  in  view  of  what  has 
been  accomplished  in  the  last  nineteen  hundred 
years,  we  may  anticipate  that  a  thousand  million 
people  will  be  evangelized  at  the  close  of  the 
present  century, 
iiicreasing  jj^  vicw  of  the  increasing  rate  of  modem 
Christian  Christian  progress,  the  evangelization  of  the  race 
Progress  jj^  ^|^g  present  generation  is  within  the  range  of 
possibilities.  In  China,  Morrison  needed  twenty- 
seven  years  to  win  his  first  three  converts  to 
Christ.  Our  own  church  needed  ten  years  to 
persuade  the  first  native  of  China  to  be  baptized. 
Upon  the  other  hand,  during  the  last  year  the 
lives  of  a  thousand  people  were  surely  being 
transformed  in  our  Methodist  colleges  alone, 
two  thousand  more  in  our  boarding  schools,  five 
thousand  more  in  our  day  schools;  while  forty 
thousand  inquirers  came  to  our  churches,  and 
one  hundred  and  sixty  thousand  came  to  our  hos- 
pitals for  help  in  body  and  soul.  And  yet  our 
church  was  doing  only  one  fifth  of  the  work  ac- 
complished by  Protestant  Christianity  in  China 
last  year.  The  early  missionaries  in  China  would 
have  looked  upon  any  such  results  as  miracles. 


Divine  Providence  and  Missions         167 

India  records  equal,  if  not  greater,  miracles  of 
grace.  In  the  Philippines  and  in  Korea  we  are 
v^itnessing  races  born  in  a  day.  Africa  is  strid- 
ing into  view  by  the  triumphs  of  the  cross.  South 
America  is  summoning  us  to  give  light  and  life 
to  her  struggling  millions,  and  to  lay  the  founda- 
tions of  Christian  education  and  civilization  for 
the  hundred  millions  who  are  soon  to  occupy  that 
continent. 

Modern  inventions  reduce  the  cost  of  printing  Power  of 
the  Bible,  so  that  a  single  gift  of  four  million  invenuons 
dollars  will  enable  the  American  Bible  Society  and  wealth 
to  produce  fifty  million  copies  of  the  Chinese 
Bible.  With  the  aid  of  missionaries  and  native 
Christians,  these  fifty  million  copies  could  be 
distributed  throughout  the  empire  at  the  cost 
of  a  million  dollars  more.  It  is  thus  within  the 
power  of  our  church  alone,  or  even  of  some 
wealthy  Christian  man,  to  evangelize  all  China 
within  the  next  fifteen  or  twenty  years  more  fully 
than  Europe  was  evangelized  at  the  time  of  the 
Reformation.  Some  business  man  may  enter  into 
partnership  with  God  and  become  the  providen- 
tial agent  for  bringing  to  the  knowledge  of  him 
a  larger  number  of  people  than  did  Cyrus  through 
ruling  the  Persian  kingdom. 

One  other  fact  must  be  borne  in  mind,  namely, '  secular  seed 
that  God  works  in  all  history,  and  that  so-called   spiritual 
secular  seed  often  bears  spiritual  fruit.    Greece   Fruit 


1 68  God's  Missionary  Plan 

though  conquered  yet  transformed  the  civiliza- 
tion of  Macedon  by  means  of  the  Greek  language 
which  Alexander  adopted,  and  the  literature, 
philosophy,  and  civilization  which  that  language 
carried  with  it.  Rome  when  conquered  neverthe- 
less transformed  the  civilization  of  her  Frank 
and  Teutonic  conquerors  in  the  same  manner.  Is 
it  not  significant,  therefore,  that  not  simply  mis- 
sionary schools  and  private  schools,  but  govern- 
ment schools  in  India,  Japan,  China,  Africa,  and 
parts  of  South  America  are  teaching  the  English 
'  language  ?  Christ  has  not  limited  his  progress  to 
the  achievements  of  the  little  band  of  mission- 
aries now  working  in  these  empires.  The 
crude  attempts  of  young  foreigners  who  have 
picked  up  a  little  English  at  our  mission  schools 
to  teach  their  fellows  our  English  tongue  are  so 
full  of  mistakes  as  to  make  laughter  almost  ir- 
V  resistible.  But  our  laughter  should  be  mingled 
with  the  song  of  triumph,  for  the  wings  of 
our  English  speech  will  carry  our  Protestant 
Christianity  to  the  ends  of  the  earth,  as  Greek 
and  Roman  civilizations  were  carried  to  western 
Asia  and  northern  Europe  on  the  wings  of  the 
Greek  and  the  Latin  languages. 
The  Sweep       jj^  closlng  let  US  lift  our  eyes  once  more  to  the 

of  God's  _    .  ^     ,        ,  .         ,  ^  , 

Kingdom      divme  sweep  of  the  kmgdom  of  heaven  on  earth 
*"<^  and  to  the  unfailing  promise  of  God.    "My  word 

Promise  .     ,,  .  ,     ,  *     « 

shall  not  return  unto  me  void,  but  shall  accom- 


Divine  Providence  and  Missions        169 

plish  that  whereunto  I  sent  it."  Read  Nettleton's 
free  translation  of  Ephesians  3.  8:  "By  revela- 
tion the  [eternal]  secret  was  made  known  to  me, 
which  in  other  generations  was  not  made  known 
to  the  sons  of  men,  that  the  heathen  are  heirs  and 
participators  and  shareholders  of  the  promise  in 
Christ  Jesus  through  the  Gospel;  of  which  I 
became  a  minister  by  the  free  gift  of  God,  .  .  . 
to  me  the  very  least  of  all  the  holy  this  gift  was  "^^^  immeas- 
entrusted — ^to  proclaim  to  the  heathen  the  good  of  chrisT*"^**^ 
news  of  the  immeasurable  wealth  of  Christ  and 
to  throw  light  upon  what  is  the  administration  of 
the  mystery  which  was  hidden  for  ages  with  God 
the  creator  of  all  things."  Read  again  that  divine 
promise  from  the  fifth  to  seventh  verses  of  the 
ninth  chapter  of  Isaiah;  the  first  half  of  which 
has  been  fulfilled:  "For  unto  us  a  child  is  born, 
unto  us  a  son  is  given ;  and  the  government  shall 
be  upon  his  shoulder:  and  he  shall  be  called 
Wonderful,  Counsellor,  Mighty  God,  Everlasting 
Father,  the  Prince  of  Peace.  Of  the  increase  of 
his  government  and  of  peace  there  shall  be  no 
end  upon  the  throne  of  David.  The  zeal  [not  of 
man  but]  of  Jehovah  of  hosts  shall  perform 
this."  Read  once  more  in  view  of  the  accom-"' 
plishments  of  the  past  century  the  promise  of  the 
Master  and  it  will  hearten  you  for  the  completion 
of  the  task ;  notice  in  reading  how  the  command 
is  preceded  by  the  assurance  of  the  Master's 


170  God's  Missionary  Plan 

power  and  followed  by  the  Master's  promise  to 
be  with  us  unto  the  end  of  the  ages :  "All  author- 
ity hath  been  given  unto  me  in  heaven  and  on 
earth ;  Go  ye,  therefore,  and  make  disciples  of  all 
the  nations,  baptizing  them  into  the  name  of  the 
Father  and  of  the  Son  and  of  the  Holy  Spirit, 
teaching  them  to  observe  all  things  whatsoever  I 
commanded  you;  and  lo,  I  am  with  you  always, 
even  unto  the  end  of  the  world." 


INDEX 


Abraham,  promise  to,  21,  48 

Africa,  missionary  work,  5, 
16,  19,  70,  93,  106;  re- 
sults, 167;  the  Congo,  15 

African  dialects,  9;  slave 
trade,  15 

Agnosticism,  39 

Allen,  Dr.,  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church,  South, 
159,  160 

Altar  service  in  Foochow, 
an,  134-136 

America,  Christianization 
of,  2  9 ;  need  of  foreigners 
in,  31 

American  Bible  Society,  36, 
167 

Americanization  of  the 
world,  the,  68 

Ancestor  worship,  138;  one 
instance,  139 

Asbury's  methods  and  re- 
sults, 100 

Ashmore,  William,  160 

Asmonean  movement,  the, 
61 

Assyria,  164 

Atheism,  39 

Atlantic  Basin,  no 

Atonement  involving  mis- 
sions, 44 

Babylon,  164 

Bacon,    Francis,  and    John 

Wesley,  156 
Bashford,  Mrs.,  152 


Battle  of  the  ages,  the,  16 
Beirut,  college  at,  160 
Best-trained  men,  the,  10 1 
Bible,  copies  of,  167;  trans- 
lation, 99;  wealth's  won- 
derful opportunity  to  cir- 
culate,  167;  work  of  the 
societies,  36 
Bishops,     our     missionary, 

154 

Board,  of  Foreign  Missions, 
the,  32 ;  of  Home  Missions 
and  Church  Extension,  32 

Bowne,  books  of  Professor, 

35 

British  Foreign  Bible  So- 
ciety, 36 

Brooks,  Phillips,  quoted, 
85,  161 

Bryan,  William  Jennings, 
quoted,  161 

Buddha,  150 

Buddhists,  77 

Building   in   foreign   lands, 

33^  34 
Bulgaria,  159 
Biirt,  Bishop,  34 
Butler,  William,  160 

Call,  how  to  learn  of  the  di- 
vine, 10 1 ;  of  distant 
lands,    no 

Canaanites,  the,  24 

Centurion's  faith,  the,  65 

Chihli  Province,  147 

China,    Chinese  empire,   2; 

71 


172  Index 


annual    missionary    con-        13,  i6;  workers  in  Europe 

tribution  for,  6;  as  a  mis-        and  America,  3,  4 

sion  field,  5,  93,  105;  en-  Christianity,    divine   power 

couragement      in,      153;        of,   157;  problem  in,  77 

evangelistic     resiilts     in,  Christianization,  of  Europe 

133-154;  illustrating  mis-        and  America,  3-8,  19,  28, 

sionary  problems,    2-16;        29;  of  the  world,  i,  19,  29, 

in  transition,  68;  Jesuits        89.     See  also  Missions 

in,     10;    long    period    of  Church  Extension  Society, 

civilization,      164;      mis-        the,  33 

sionary   force,    3,   4,   99;  Civil    power    and    mission- 

opitmi    evil,     13;    popu-        aries,  10,  11 

lation,  2;  sermons  in,  133-  Cleansing    and    renewal    of 


137,    144-146;    three    es-    _  the  soul,  77 

";,  S.T.,  quoted,  155 
Chinese,    civilization,     164;    Collections,  comparison  of. 


sentials  for,  150  Coleridge,  S.  T.,  quoted,  15; 


converts,    134,    137;    ex-  38;  educational,  36,  37 

elusion,  12,  13;  language,  Commissioner  of  education, 

8;   politeness,    135,    144,  147,  151 

151;    solidarity,     7,     15;  Common   sense   as  a  guide, 

translation  of  Bible  and  103 

hymn  book,  35  Comparison    of   home    and 

Chosen  people,  the,  23,  27  foreign  fields,  2-7 

Christ,  conflict  with   satan,  Confucius,    39;    Confucian- 

16;  devotion  to  the  Jew-  ists,  77 

ish    race,  24;  leading  the  Congo  atrocities,  15 

missionary  enterprise,  18,  Conscientious  use  of  money, 

64-67;     maker     of     all  126 

worlds,    58;   meaning   of  Converts,  as  givers,  33;  Chi- 

his  kingship,    67;   power  nese,  134,  137 

shown  in  the  miracles  of.  Conviction  of  sin,  133-135, 

83;  progress  of  his  king-  138 

dom,   162-169;  replacing  Cooperating  with  God,  112 

self,  29;  supreme  in  mis-  Copernicus,  160 

sionary  purpose,  64-68  Cornelius,     conversion     of, 

Christendom,       evangeliza-  60 

tion  of,    5;  expenditures  Creation    account,    bearing 
of,  religious    and    charit-  on  missions,  47 
able,  6;  periods  of  devel- 
opment, 162-166  Darwin  quoted,  160 

Christian,     colleges,     India  Democracy,    the   trend   to- 

and   Turkey,    160;   com-  ward,  68 

monwealth,       the,       40;  Denby,  Hon.  Charles,  quot- 

traders  in  heathen  lands,  ed,  10 


Index 


173 


Denominational  loyalty,  26, 
27 

Difficulties,  see  Missions, 
difficulties 

Disillusion  follows  misin- 
terpretation, 156 

Dispensation  of  the  Spirit, 
the,  78-88 

Dispensations,     the     three, 

_  73-89 

Divine,     commission,      71; 

promise,  72 
Dowieism,  delusion  of,  157 
Duties,  divine,  41 

Education,  modem,  in 
heathen  lands,  158 

Election,  Arminian  view, 
2  2  ;  Calvinistic  tendency, 
2  2 ;  doctrine  of,  22,  27; 
to  divine  duties,  41 

Electricity,  the  age  of,  81 

English,  authority  in  India, 
15;  language,  168 

Etirope,  as  a  mission  field, 
93,  104;  Christian  work 
for,  2-8 

Evangelists  in  China,  duties 
of,  100 

Evangelization,  1-19,  71, 
72;  periods,  162-165; 
possibilities,  166-170 

Evils  disappearing,  158 

Example,  the  stage  of,  77 

Exclusion  Act,  the  Amer- 
ican, 12,  16 

Expenditures,  comparative, 
6 

Failures   in   business,   pro- 
portion of,  125 
Faith,  secret  of,  41 
False  humility,  102 
Family  ties,  25 


Famine  in  Shansi,  86 

Fields  white  for  the  har- 
vest, 109 

Financial  knowledge  essen- 
tial, 123 

Finney,  a  type,  84 

Fletcher,  a  type,  84 

Foochow,  altar  services  in, 
134,  137,  138;  preaching 
in,  133;  foot-binding,  158 

Foreign  work,  one  collec- 
tion for  many  countries 
and  needs,  32 ;  relation  of 
home  work  to,  21-42 

Foreigners  in  America,  31 

Foster,  Mrs.,  152 

France,  164;  missionary  op- 
portunity in,  34,  104 

Funds,  how  to  secure,  112; 
large  increase  needed,  113 

Generosity  inculcated,   130 

Gentile  apostle,  no,  24,  27 

Gentiles,  Peter's  admission 
of  the,  60 

Giving,  as  a  Christian  duty, 
1 1 2-13 2;  impulsive,  125; 
in  mission  fields,  33;  rec- 
ompense certain,  40 

Gladstone,  Mr.,  69 

God,  as  a  partner,  112;  def- 
inition of,  45;  missionary 
plan  of,  1-20;  present  in 
missionary  effort,  155; 
purposes  of,  129;  the  true 
end  of  creation,  39-42 

Gospel,  a  new  meaning, 
145;  agencies  at  home 
and  in  China  compared, 
3-7 

Gravitation,  the  law  of,  81 

Greece,  illustration  from, 
168 

Guyon,  Madame,  84 


174 


Index 


Habakkiik's  song,  52 
Haeckel,  39 

Hague  tribunal,  the,  69 
Harris,      Bishop      M.      C, 

160 
Heathen,  pagan,  or unevan- 

gelized   peoples,   number 

of,  2,  19 
Hebrews,  book  of,  57 
Higher  critical  ideas,  24 
Hill,    David,    work    of,  in 

China,  86,  160 
Holy  Spirit,   work  of  the, 

79-89 
Home   and   foreign  duties, 

22;  needs   of  home   and 

foreign  missions,  27,   28, 

Home  Conferences,  presstire 
in  the,  107-109 

Home  missions,  basis  for, 
22-28;  immense  total  of 
gifts  for,  32;  large  in- 
crease needed,  113,  114 

Hospitals,  37  ;  the  first  mod- 
em, in  West  China,  159 

Hsi,  remark  of  Dr.,  151; 
strong  Christian  testi- 
mony, 152 

Himian  nature,  Lessing's 
study  of,  75 

Himg  Sui-tseuen,  13 

Ideal  of  Jesus,  the,  67 
Idolatry,    to    be    forsaken, 

135.  137.  146 
Idols,  meanmg  of  the  term, 

India,  English  authority  m, 
1 5 ;  languages  of,  9 ;  Meth- 
odism in,  compared  with 
China,  153;  missionary 
work  in,  5,  16,  19,  70, 
105,  106 


Individualism,  39,  90 

Inherited  wealth,  unfavor- 
able effects  of,  40 

Isaiah,  preparation  of,  loi; 
words  of,  50,  51 

"Islands  of  the  sea,"  mis- 
sionary work  in,  5,  16,  19 

Ito,  Marquis,  quoted,  161 

Japan,  Jesuits  in,  10;  mis- 
sionary work  in,  19,  49; 
needs  of,  104 

Jeremiah's  cry,  51 

Jesus,  see  Christ 

Jews,  an  example,  the,  131; 
error  of  the,  41 ;  Pharisaic 
tendency  of,  52,  54;  priv- 
ilege of,  23-27;  purpose 
of  their  call,  56,  61 

John,  Griffith,  160 

John  the  apostle's  change  of 
view,  63,  66 

John  the  Baptist,  63,  66 

Jonah,  book  of,  54,  57 

Judaism,  the  expansion  of, 

55 
Justification  by  faith,  61,  62 

Korea,  people  of,  105,  154, 
167;  record  of  increased 
membership,  154 

Lambeth  Conference,  the, 
69 

Language  problem,  in  Af- 
rica, 9;  in  China,  8,  9;  in 
India,  9 

Languages,  Greek  and  Lat- 
in, 168 

Latent  talent,  103 

Leadership,  opportunity 
for,  99 

Lessing's  study  of  human 
nature,  75 


Index 


175 


Liquor  traffic,  an  obstacle, 

^   IS 

Livingstone,  David,  i6o 
London  Quarterly  Review, 

30 
Lord's  Prayer,  the,  64 
Love,  the  law  of,  39 
Lowry,  H.  H.,  160 
Luther,    achievements,    85; 

preparation,  10 1 

Mabie,  Henry  C,  44 

Maclay,  R.  S.,  160 

Malachi's  prophecy,  52 

Malaysia,  106 

Margin,  the  key  to  fortune, 
the,  127 

Martin,  Dr.  W.  A.  P.,  160 

Materialism,  39 

McKenzie,  Dr.,  151,  152 

Mediterranean  Basin,  no 

Meiniche  quoted,  162 

Melchizedek,  59 

Methodism,  in  China  and 
India,  153;  in  the  Philip- 
pines, 153;  in  Korea,  154 

Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
Woman's  Foreign  Mis- 
sionary Society  (Board), 
6;  total  annual  contribu- 
tions, 6 

Micah's  prophecy,  51 

Millionaire,  a  poor,  128 

Ministers  in  China,  3;  in 
the  United  States,  3 ; 
ranked  equally  with  mis- 
sionaries, 28 

Ministry  an  overcrowded 
profession,  109 

Miracles,  54,  55,  60;  of 
science  and  of  grace,  165 

Missionaries,  as  creators,  99, 
1 00;  attractiveness,  94; 
call  of ,  92 ;  character  first, 


10 1 ;  common  sense,  95; 
companionableness,  94; 
faith  and  optimism,  95; 
gifts  of  leadership,  95; 
health  a  requisite,  93; 
influence,  99,  100;  in 
China,  4,  99;  leadership, 
99;  partners  with  Christ, 
100;  passion  for  service, 
97 ;  personal  qualities,  94; 
preparation,  10 1;  retain- 
ing certain  privileges,  25 ; 
scholarship,  94;  soldier 
spirit,  96;  sympathies,  94 

Missionary,  collections  and 
uses  for,  31,  32,  36;  inter- 
pretation of  history,  69, 
162;  problem,  69;  spirit, 
104 

Missionary  Society  of  the 
M.  E.  Church  (Parent 
Board),  6;  division  of, 
32.    See  also  Board,  etc. 

Mission,  Bible  supply,  35; 
bmldings,  :^:^\  chtirches, 
33;  countries,  35;  edu- 
cational work,  36,  37; 
hospitals,  37;  literature, 
34,  35;  parsonages,  33; 
pastoral  support,  37 

Missions,  climate  affecting, 
93 ;  commission  of  Christ, 
18,  20,  66,  70;  conse- 
quent on  his  spirit,  life, 
and  death,  64-68;  diffi- 
culties, 2,  8-16,  96;  di- 
viding one  appropriation 
among  many  interests, 
33-37;  divine  plan  of 
campaign,  1-20;  encour- 
agements, 97-100;  goal 
of  revelation,  43,  56-70; 
God's  summons  to,  17, 
18;  Methodist,  in  twenty- 


176 


Index 


six  countries,  32;  not  a 
qtiixotic  scheme,   17;  re- 
soiirces  for,    18;   results, 
133-154;  self-support,  32, 
33;  warrant  for,  43.    See 
also       Christianization, 
Evangelization. 
Mississippi  Valley,  no,  158 
Moffat,  Robert,  160 
Montecorvino,  John  of,  10 
Morrison,  Robert,  134 
Moses,  preparation  of,  10 1 

Natural  and  supernatural, 

81 
Neighbor,  obligation  to  our, 

39 

Nevius  in  China,  86 

New  Testament  and  mis- 
sions, 24,  25,  58-70 

Newton,  Isaac,  160 

Nicodemus,  66 

Obedience  to  law  essential, 
88 

Oldham,  Bishop,  154 

Old  Testament  and  mis- 
sions, 21-24,  43-57 

Openings,  providential,  102, 
104 

Opium,  traffic  being  over- 
come, 158;  war,  II,  15 

Opportunities  in  the  for- 
eign field,  109 

Pacific    Basin,    civilization 
passing  to,  no;  Islands, 
work  in,  159 
Pantheism,  39 
Parables  of  our  Lord,  64 
Parents,  an  appeal  to,  iii 
Parliament  of  religions,  a, 

^47 

PauU  source  of  power,  85; 


transformed  into  a  mis- 
sionary, 42,  52,  61-63, 70. 
92,  lOI 
Payson,  Edward,  84 
Peace  in  devotion,  156,  157 
Peking,   a  lecture   in,    147; 

University,  160 
Personal  blessings,  the  doc- 
trine of,  25,  27 
Peter's  missionary  message, 

59 

Pharisees,  basis  for,  23;  too 
narrow  view  of,  57-67 

Philippines,  conditions  in, 
106,  154,  167 

Philosophy  of  history  il- 
luminated by  missions, 
62,  68,  69,  162-169 

Physicians,  missionary,  4 

Pilate's  question,  67 

Polygamy,  158 

Poor  millionaire,  a,  128 

Population,  Africa,  9;  Chi- 
nese empire,  2;  Europe 
and  America,  2;  India,  9; 
United  States,  3 

Poverty  in  heathen  lands, 

Power,  method  of  securing, 
73-89;  Pentecostal,  80 

Precept,  the  stage  of,  77 

Presbyterian  Church,  a  mis- 
sionary society,  69,  70 

Press,  the,  in  missions,  159, 

165 
"Priests  unto  God,"  91 
Principle,  the  stage  of,  77 
Problems,  missionary,  2,  5; 

Christianity's,  77 
Prodigal,  the  parable  of  the, 

55.  56 

Prophets,  missionary  pas- 
sages from,  50-52 

Protestant,     Church,      61; 


Index 


177 


faith,  7;  Syrian  College, 
160 

Providential  purpose  of 
world  evangelization,  70, 
155-170 

Psalms,  missionary  concep- 
tions in,  49 

Rahab,  59 

Reformation,  the,  7 

Religion,  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, 47;  rightly  cen- 
tered, 41,  42 

Responsibilities  to  be  ac- 
cepted, 102 

Richards,  in  China,  86 

Ritschlianism,  original  aim 

of,  155,  157 
Robert  College,  159,  160 
Robertson,  Frederick,  21 
Robinson,  Bishop,  154 
Roman    Catholic,  faith,    8; 

methods  a  hindrance,  10 
Rome,  164,  168 
Roosevelt,  President,  13 
Russia,  in    transition,    68; 

outlook  in,  104 
Ruth,  book  of,  53,  57 

Sabbath  and  Christianity, 
116 

Saint  John's  College,  Shang- 
hai, 160 

Salvation  Army,  the,  33 

Sanctification,  essence  of, 
88 

Saul  the  Pharisee,  63 

Schook  and  colleges,  37, 
150,  160 

Secular  pursuits,  113;  spirit- 
ual fruit  of,  167 

Selfishness  sure  of  defeat, 
40 

Self  one  of  three  factors,  39 


Self-propagation,   99 

Self-support,  32,  99 

Sermon  on  the  Mount,  78 

Shanghai,  commercial  press 
at,  159 

Siam,  159,  160;  the  king  of, 
quoted,  162 

Silliman,  Professor,  quoted, 
160,  161 

Singapore  students,  159 

Slave  trade,  effects  of,  15 

Smith,  Arthur  H.,  160 

Socialism,  39 

Soul,  cleansing  and  renewal 
of  the,  77 

South  America,  as  a  mis- 
sion field,  93,  iii;  its 
nations  awakening,  105; 
representative  govern- 
ment in,  168;  schools  in, 
167,  168 

South  Sea,  Christianity 
throughout,  160 

Spain,  164 

Speer,  Robert  E.,  91 

Spirit,  the  indwelling  and 
dispensation  of  the,   77, 

78 
Statistics:  Chinese  written 
characters,  8;  Christian- 
ity, annual  expenditures 
for,  6;  colleges  and  uni- 
versities, gifts  to,  in  1906, 
37;  foreign  missionary 
workers  in  China,  99; 
foreign  missions,  gifts  to, 
38;  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  annual  gifts,  29; 
ministers  in  the  United 
States,  3;  population  of 
Chinese  empire.  United 
States,  etc.,  see  Popula- 
tion; unevangelized  peo- 
ples, 19 


178 


Index 


Stead,  Mr.,  68 

Stevenson,  Professor  R.  T., 

69,  162 
Stevenson,  Robert  L.,  quot- 
ed, 161 
Stiintz,  Dr.,  154 
"Submerged  tenth,the,*'  121 
Summary  of  progress,  163 
Systematic  giving,  114 
Szechuen  Province,  a  jour- 
ney and  incidents  in,  142 

Taiping  Rebellion,  the,  13 
Teachers,  missionary,  3,  4 
Theocratic  nation,  the  Jews, 

the,  65 
Thobum,       Bishop,      154, 

160 
Thomas  a  Kempis,  84 
Thomas  the  apostle,  85 
Tithing,  objections  to,  120; 

advantages  in,  122 
Tract  Society  and  Sunday 

School  Union,  the,  34 
Trained  men,  10 1 
Tribal  divinities,  24,  48 
Ttukey,  159 
Typical  experiences,  84 

United  States,  Christian 
work  in,  2-7,  107-109; 
ministers  in,  3;  popula- 
tion, 3 


Universal  redemption,God's 
provision  for,  57 

Verbeck,  G.  F.,  160 

Wanamaker,  John,  expe- 
rience of,  38 

Warne,  Bishop,  154 

Warrant  for  missions,  the 
divine,  43 

Water  chemically  defined, 

45 

Watkinson,  Dr.,  30 

Wesley,  John,  70;  expe- 
rience and  teaching,  83; 
preparation,  loi;  view  of 
"enthusiasts,"  103 

Woman's  Foreign  Mission- 
ary Society,  6 

Women  missionaries,  3,  4 

Workers,  in  the  home  field, 
3,  4,  7,  107,  109;  in  the 
foreign  field,  method  of 
seciiring,  90-1 11 

World  conquests  for  mis- 
sionaries, 70 

Young       Men's     Christian 

Association,  152 
Young  people  and  mission 

service,  100-104 

Zechariah's  song,  52 


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